The Hummel Quest: Armageddon
by autophagy
Summary: In a world inhabited and ruled by sentient tanks, a team of misfits has to face their greatest threat and challenge yet. Part 2 of the Hummel Quest.
1. Prologue

_[Hello and welcome to the second part of the Hummel Quest! I am so happy to be back after more than a year and I hope you will enjoy the sequel as much as you enjoyed the first part. I will update this as I write, so there's no special schedule for new chapters planned. Have fun reading, and please don't be shy about leaving feedback!]_

Smoke crawled across the pavement. The sound of dying fires filled the chilly evening air. Ruined remains of destroyed buildings threw growing shadows on the burning wrecks of tanks, as if they were trying to hide them. In the midst of all the destruction, a Leopard 1 was slowly dragging his heavily damaged hull down the street. The roar of cannons and the heat of explosions were still vivid in his mind, the pain from the shells hitting him still fresh. His whole body ached. The temptation to stop right there and give in to his wounds was strong, but there was something stronger that kept him from surrendering himself to his fate.

He looked back at the tank he was towing along. The Patton was in an even worse shape than he was, leaving behind a trail of oil and fuel on the torn up ground.

"Hang in there …" the Leopard whispered. "Just hang in there …"

Every inch his tracks carried him took an overwhelming amount of effort, and even though the border of the town was in sight, it didn't seem to get any closer. He stared into the setting sun that shone from behind the hills in the distance as he forced himself to go on. It felt like hours had gone by as he finally reached the last buildings, and the open, hilly landscape before him was revealed fully. It seemed to reach as far as his optics could see. Lowering his cannon with determination, he continued down the road, but then something became visible against the bright red horizon.

The Leopard came to a halt. He loaded his cannon and shakily pointed it at the silhouettes that were appearing on the hills. After only a few moments however, he didn't know anymore where to point it first; he counted about fifteen shapes — without doubt these had to be tanks. One of them was approaching him slowly.

"Hold it right there!" the Leopard shouted.

It seemed to achieve the desired effect. The unknown tank stopped. The Leopard kept aiming at it.

"One move, and I'll shoot," he growled.

A deep voice replied.

"Go ahead, if you think it will kill me," the other tank said calmly.

The Leopard glared at it grimly, unsure if he should give it a try anyway. But he held his fire, even as the tank set itself into motion and came closer again.

"You don't have to be afraid," it went on.

"I am not," the Leopard snapped.

"I won't harm you," the stranger said. "I merely have an offer."

Puzzled now, the Leopard however didn't stop glaring.

"An offer …?" he asked.

The other tank reached him, and now the Leopard could see him clearly. He had never seen such a tank model. The white stripes on the stranger's dark green camouflage paint were gleaming in the fading sunlight. His turret had completely flat — if angled — cheeks. The cannon wasn't unlike the Leopard's own. The glacis was of a similar appearance as the turret, only featuring small headlights where the upper and lower plate met, and optics below the cannon. On his side, the tank had armour skirts. The Leopard stared at him with incomprehension. After a few seconds of silence, the stranger spoke again, although he did not answer the question.

"She is dead, isn't she?"

The Leopard froze.

"No!" he said. "I can still save her!"

The other tank shook his cannon with a patient expression.

"No, you can't."

The Leopard's cannon sank in defeat. The stranger was right. She had been dead the moment her engine was hit. He looked up again, bewildered, as the other tank went on.

"Unless …"

There was a pause, and the Leopard anxiously waited for the stranger's next words.

"… unless you join me. I saw you fight, and I have to say I was impressed. I can bring her back, but you will have to join my team in return."

The Leopard looked at him with unbelieving optics. How did this tank think he could bring someone back from the dead? He had to be insane.

"You're lying," he said, a hint of anger in his voice as he felt like his emotions were being played with.

"What would I gain from lying to you?" the stranger said with a smile. He tilted his cannon. "What is your name, Leopard?"

The Leopard hesitated for a moment before answering. He realised that it hardly mattered if this tank knew his name, however.

"I am called Nosferatu," he said.

The other tank continued to smile.

"Nosferatu, I will only ask one more time, so choose wisely. Will you join me?"

Looking back at the Patton once more, Nosferatu knew that even if this seemed like lunacy, it could be real. If he agreed and the promise wasn't kept, he had nothing to lose. But if it turned out to be true, he would never forgive himself for not taking the chance — if he wasn't already dead by then, just another tragic tale told by none. He looked at the stranger again, and his voice was firm as he replied.

"Yes, I will."


	2. Ante Bellum

[Two years later.]

The light tank raced through the little town, its engine howling, tracks kicking up dirt and dust. A shell that could have easily torn it to pieces slammed into the building it had just passed. The house collapsed into itself. A second shell flew past its turret, hitting the ground just a few meters to the light tank's right. It raced on, putting a shell into the side of the KV-4 — one of the heavies that had been shooting at it — while he was still reloading. But the light tank didn't waste even a second with trying to circle the other tank; there was a T29 appearing from behind one of the buildings. He was reloading as well, but his cannon followed the light anyway.

Before they could shoot the light tank again, it brought another building between itself and them. An explosion right before it told it that it was going in the right direction. Now it saw something move ahead of it, climbing up the cliff-lined road that led up to the base's North Plateau. It was the tank it was looking for — the arty. The light tank drove on as fast as it could, and it could see the grey and brown SPG disappear behind the steep rock face where the road made a bend. Almost reaching the mouth of the cliff, the light tank suddenly noticed movement to its left. It turned its turret. As if it had been waiting for it, a Pershing was standing a little way down an adjacent road. It happened way too fast for the light tank to even fully process what was going on; the Pershing fired just as the light tank passed it.

" _Gotcha!_ " Sky shouted as her shell easily blew up the enemy light tank. She laughed triumphantly, then turned to her radio.

"Arty, Sky. Are you alright?" she asked the SPG that she had just saved.

«Sky, Arty … Yeah, I think …»

Sky could hear a sudden explosion nearby, and Arty yelped.

"What happened?" Sky asked at once, setting herself into motion to go look for the SPG.

«Sky, Arty. The arty knows where I am now,» Arty said hastily.

Stopping again, Sky quickly considered her options. If Arty returned to her previous position, she would most likely get killed, but if she hid now, she would be useless to the team. She looked at the clear blue sky above, her optics searching for a certain plane.

"Goggles, Sky. Can you take care of this?" she asked.

The Stuka flew over the Pershing's position a moment later, heading for the South Plateau.

«Sky, Goggles. Negative. Can't see them,» she reported as she reached it. Sky saw her fly a big loop, then directed her gaze back at optic-level.

Inspiration hit her as she looked back at the destroyed enemy light tank. Her team had a light tank as well, and it was time to put him to good use.

"Arty, Sky. Hide for now. Alex, Sky. Are you free? Can you go for their arty?"

She listened to her radio intently, but only heard distant shots and explosions before she finally received a reply.

«Sky, Alex. There's heavies between me and them.»

Sky turned around and started rolling back into the town.

"Alex, Sky. Their light could make it past _our_ heavies, you can do the same," she said. She could have sworn that she heard something like an offended rumble from her heavy team mates, but ignored it. Alex was probably about to confirm the order, but before he could do that, a third tank intervened.

«Sky, Eohelm. I don't think that's a good idea,» the team's Centurion said.

###

Eohelm carefully took aim at the sprocket, the only part beside the cannon of the enemy tank that was poking out behind the building it was standing behind. Before he could shoot however, it suddenly backed up. Eohelm snorted with disappointment, but another matter needed his attention anyway.

«Eohelm, Sky. Why the hell not?» his leader asked.

The Centurion found himself caught in a dilemma. He didn't want to oppose Sky in front of the others, but he was positive that this order would get their light tank killed. He looked at the grey and white Leopard 1 that was standing a little way ahead of him, just next to the rocky ledge to their right. The other tank looked back at him and shrugged, then ducked as he was being shot at. Behind them, cannons roared as shells were flying back and forth between five heavy tanks, two on Eohelm's side and three enemies, and neither of them even thinking of backing up. As long as this stalemate was going on, it was impossible to go for the arty themselves.

He didn't know what to say, but it seemed like the decision had been made already anyway.

«Sky, Alex. I'll do it,» their light tank said.

Eohelm sighed. At least one of the heavies behind him reported a kill a moment later.

###

Alex took a deep breath. The WZ-132 looked at the town ahead of him. He set himself into motion, and the buildings started approaching quickly as he crossed the open, grassy space west of the town. Accelerating to his top speed, he hurried through the narrow streets, skidded around a corner — and found himself right in front of two heavy tanks. They noticed him but were too startled at first to do anything about his presence as he raced towards them. Alex didn't stop and dashed right between them. Their turrets followed him and they almost ended up shooting each other as they tried to catch him. He quickly passed them by and swerved to the left, out of their line of fire as he disappeared behind a rock. He stopped there, fuel pump pounding like mad.

A shell ricocheted off the rock's edge, which unfortunately meant that the heavies didn't intend to ignore him. His turret spun around as he looked for a possible escape route, but there weren't any that wouldn't expose him to their cannons again.

"Team, Alex …" he said slowly. "I'm in trouble."

###

"Goddammit!" Sky hissed to herself. She could basically feel her team mates judging her for putting Alex in a bad situation against better advice. Lowering her cannon as she drove on, she reached the middle of the town. The noises of the cannons of her two heavy team mates were very close now. She looked up again, could hear Goggles but not see her.

"Goggles, Sky! Do something!" the Pershing said. The plane was the only one who wasn't busy at the moment.

«Sky, Goggles …» Goggles replied, sounding exasperated. «Can't. They're too close. I could hit our guy by accident.»

Sky frantically tried to think of something, while Alex urgently reminded everyone that the enemy heavies were about to reach him.

"Rill? Eject? Eohelm! Pepper! Anyone! Go!" she shouted into her radio, naming everyone she knew was close enough to possibly help.

There were a couple of «Negative»s. Sky threw her cannon up in despair. If no one was going to do it, she would have to do it herself, even if it meant going up against two heavies. She had gotten Alex into this dangerous situation, she would get him out of it.

"Forget it, I'm going!" she informed the others grimly. "Rill, Eject: Give me fire support!"

Speeding up, she drove along the road until she could see Rill's green camo between the buildings. She approached the KV-4 and was about to tear past him when he suddenly turned his hull. Sky hit the brakes, but still bumped into him with an irritated "H-Hey!".

"Careful," Rill said.

A moment later, artillery fire tore up the ground just a few meters ahead of them, hitting the spot where Sky would have been now had she driven on.

«I saw a tracer!» Awol, her brother, reported over the radios.

"Good, shoot its origin," Rill replied.

Sky looked up at him, her irritation growing.

" _I'm_ giving the commands!" she barked and struggled free to race on.

«Team, Eohelm. Please remember to use —»

Eohelm's transmission was cut off as something blew up noisily.

«I did it — I mean — Team, Awol! I did it!» came an excited transmission from the Wespe.

Sky's expression brightened up a little, but she didn't forget about the problem at hand. She set herself into motion again, passing the crater that the artillery shell had left and heading straight for the enemy tanks. Behind her, the T29 and the KV-4 slowly left their cover.

One of the enemy heavies showed its back to her when it came into sight, the other one facing her. Sky didn't hesitate and shot the distracted one, causing it to burst into flames. It turned around with shock and surprise, screaming as it stared at its own burning engine deck for a moment. Its comrade immediately took aim at Sky and shot her, however only bouncing the shell off the side of her turret and leaving a shiny scar on the surface. Sky shot back, then saw Alex peeking out from his cover and shooting the enemy tanks as well. As Eject and Rill caught up, they joined the shooting. It didn't take long until the enemies had been turned into smoking wrecks.

Sky breathed a sigh of relief. Alex turned around at once, telling her that he'd go help the tank destroyers at the beach. That sounded like a good idea to the Pershing. She joined him driving up the hills to the South Plateau while the heavies took the route through the town to shoot down on the beach from the cliffside.

It took several minutes until she made it up the hill and to the entrance of the beach, so of course Alex arrived there first. He started shooting the medium and the two enemy tank destroyers that had been busy there the whole time, being held back by Sky's team mates.

«About time!» a gruff Jagdpanther said as the enemy medium blew up. Sky reached the beach as well and took care of a tank destroyer that had just turned around to face the new threat; its fellow tank destroyer died to a 10.5cm shell as the allied Jagdpanther came around the bend in the cliff. He made short work of his enemy after having played peek-a-boo with it for the majority of the battle.

Sky looked at the wrecks with satisfaction.

"Eohelm, Sky. What's the situation up there?" she then asked.

###

"Sky, Eohelm. We're almost done here," Eohelm replied in an optimistic voice. He and the Leopard 1 had turned around and were helping the VK 45.02 B and the King Tiger deal with the remaining two enemy heavies, now that their flank didn't need to be guarded anymore. It was only a matter of a few moments until they managed to overwhelm them. The VK — Rex — tried to give the King Tiger — Fox — a high five with his kill-stripe-covered cannon, but it went unnoticed as Fox just set himself into motion the moment Rex started turning his turret.

Eohelm watched them with silent amusement, but then turned serious again as he turned to his radio.

"Team, Eohelm. Good job everybody. We won," he said.

' _… if not effortlessly,_ ' he added in his thoughts. The others congratulated each other as well, although some of the voices sounded reserved. Eohelm strolled towards the wrecks as well to help Fox with towing them to somewhere where they wouldn't be in the way. In his thoughts he was already preparing a debriefing for the battle. He wasn't going to point it out with the other tanks present, but he got the feeling that a second, private debriefing would be in order. Sky had made a mistake that had almost gotten one of their team mates killed, and while the Centurion wasn't going to openly criticise her for it in front of their team mates, it was still a matter that had to be addressed.

Everyone made mistakes, no matter how good a leader. But with Sky, it seemed to be becoming a trend lately. Or maybe she was just starting to disregard his advice as the team's strategian more and more. He knew that she wasn't getting power-mad or anything, she was just … very stubborn about her opinion of what was right and what was wrong sometimes, combined with a lack of experience of leading a team. And as she was becoming more confident in her self-proclaimed leader role, she was making more of the decisions herself. Another complication was her insistence on keeping low tier members on the team, even if they could barely help during battles — which left a nasty taste in some of the tanks' fuel intakes. The problem with these things was that she was merely the leader because the others condoned it, and the question was how much longer they would tolerate her if she kept this course.

With a long sigh, Eohelm continued his mental preparation for the debriefing, hoping that no one else would point out the issue for him, as he didn't trust some of his less tactful team members to handle it in a diplomatic way.

 _[Note: By "two years later" I mean two years after the events of the prologue, not two years after the first HQ. This story is happening a couple of months after the events of the first part.]_


	3. Storm Brewing

Fox looked at the line of tanks that was waiting nearby. Some of them were patient, while others were fidgeting, shuffling around on their tracks. One of them seemed to have fallen asleep. The TRV that regularly visited them had shown up right after the fight; she had probably arrived during it and waited in a safe place until it was over. Repairs after a battle always took a long time, and the King Tiger was glad that he hadn't taken any noteworthy damage. He passed the others by and continued on his way to the North Plateau. He and Rex had been charged with the task of gathering all the fuel from the enemy wrecks. They were taking it to the little shed in the northernmost part of their base, where the Tanking League kept all their fuel and spare parts.

The small cart he was pulling behind him suddenly got stuck in a pot hole in the ground, which he only noticed as he had already snapped the stuck wheel off. He stopped and turned his turret around to look at what had caused the strange jolting sensation.

"Really?" he groaned. The fuel cans hadn't tumbled out — as they were meagre in number anyway — but now he would have to join the tanks waiting for repairs after all. Rex drove past him with his own little cart and grinned gleefully.

###

With the arrival of the TRV, Sky had decided to postpone the debriefing to get the "more important" things done first. Eohelm had a feeling that she was having similar worries about it as he did. He was intent on holding it in the evening though, and he would remind the Pershing about it should she forget about it.

' _Maybe it's not a bad idea to wait a bit,_ ' he mused. ' _The emotions will have calmed down, so hopefully everyone will be more reasonable._ ' He was torn out of his train of thought rather bluntly a moment later. He winced in pain as the TRV welded a seam on his armour that had taken some damage. Eohelm tried to hold still despite the searing sensation. Unfortunately, anaesthetics weren't widely available, which made most medical procedures rather … medieval. Eohelm had always suspected that some tanks who were acting like they were too tough for repairs were secretly just trying to avoid them because of this.

Finally, the TRV backed up. She examined her work for a moment, then seemed to be satisfied.

"Next," she said plainly.

Eohelm quickly bowed to her and left. He nonverbally requested Sky's current location, and received a ping from the beach, which was therefore his next destination. While the actual debriefing was going to take place later, he wanted to talk to her beforehand anyway, now that both of them were free. This talk wasn't going to be pleasant for either of them, but that just meant that he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.

He drove down the path that lead to the shore, optics searching for his leader. He spotted her as soon as he drove around the cliff ledge ahead of him. She was just standing on the sand, looking out into the sea. Eohelm followed her gaze, but couldn't see anything in particular. He approached her at a leisurely pace, having no doubt that she had already noticed him, despite not reacting in any way.

"Sky," he said as soon as he reached her. She turned her turret slightly. The shell mark from the earlier battle had divided the white star on it into two. As she didn't say anything, Eohelm went on cautiously. "About the battle …" he began to say, but trailed off as she talked over him.

"I know," she said curtly and turned around. Eohelm watched her simply drive off, too dumbfounded to do anything about it.

###

With a defeated huff, the Leichttraktor averted his gaze from the thick clouds that were gathering above the base.

"I don't know," he said, kicking a stone around with his tracks. "No one's saying it but I bet they're all thinking it."

Awol and Arty looked at him with troubled expressions.

"That's not true," Awol said. "Protecting the arty is an important task." He wasn't used to seeing his light tank friend so downcast, and it was heartbreaking, figuratively speaking.

The Leichttraktor looked at the ground.

"There's a reason why I'm called Noob," he murmured. Awol tried to think of something to say to that. It was true that Noob could barely help during the battles. In fact, most of the time he ended up doing absolutely nothing, like in the one that had happened earlier. Awol, being a Wespe at least, could support his team mates somewhat, but what could a little tier 1 light tank achieve in a high tier battle? Some of their team mates had repeatedly demanded that he finally tiered up already, but it was virtually impossible for them to find suitable parts. There weren't many teams here to begin with, and not a single low tier team it seemed. Not that they would have gone and slaughtered low tiers, but they would have possibly been able to offer one of their deceased.

There was a whole different issue beneath the surface of this, though. Awol didn't know if Noob really felt the same, but speaking for himself, he didn't really _want_ to tier up. They said that once a tank found a form they were comfortable with, they should stick with it. But what if that form was a tier 3, or even a tier 1?

A rumbling voice from their right made all three cannons turn in surprise.

"Protecting the arty …" Eject said. He was sitting under a nearby tree, turret facing backwards. The low tiers had assumed he was napping as he hadn't joined the conversation until now or moved at all. Even now, he had only tilted his antennas slightly. He went on in the ponderous tone that was characteristical for many heavy tanks. "Well and good, but one day he'll be out of luck, what is he going to do when a high tier tank shows up?"

Noob seemed to slump. Awol came to his defence at once.

"He can spot them before they reach me and warn me, so I can run away in time," he said with conviction.

Eject's antennas went back to an upright position and he snorted.

"They'll outspot him easily, he'll be dead and never see it coming," the T29 said.

Awol couldn't help but feel upset at the turn this had taken. He looked at Noob, then at Eject again.

"Please don't talk about him in third person when he's present," the Wespe said to his heavy team mate, his tone stiff. Before Eject could say anything in response, Noob spoke up, replying to Eject's previous words.

"He'll know then that something is coming, and might be able to save himself at least," he said quietly.

Awol was speechless, and Arty took the resulting silence as a chance to steer the conversation into another direction, if awkwardly.

"Oh, Eject, since you're here already … I meant to ask … When will we train again?" she asked as if they hadn't just talked about their team mate's death.

Eject remained silent for a moment longer, then gave a noncommittal shrug.

"Maybe later," he said.

Arty was obviously thinking about what to say, but was seemingly unable to come up with any reply to the taciturn statement. She eventually mumbled a sheepish-sounding "Oh, okay …"

Awol was looking at her, but his gaze darted back to Noob as he noticed that the Leichttraktor had turned around and was leaving.

"… Noob!" he said and set himself into motion to follow his friend. Arty seemed indecisive for a moment before she rolled off into the opposite direction.

###

"Thank you for your services," Sky said. She was standing before the TRV, who was about to leave after having finished the repairs and collecting her payment. The TRV nodded casually.

"I'll be back in five days," she said.

Sky tilted her cannon.

"So early?" she asked. The TRV shrugged. As she was about to answer, Sky noticed the engine sounds of two familiar tanks. She looked up and saw two Shermans approach, a Jumbo and an Easy Eight. It seemed like Crowley and his brother Barfly had returned from their scouting mission.

"Sky," Crowley said and nodded his cannon in a greeting as he reached the Pershing. Barfly did the same.

Sky got straight to the point.

"How was it?" she asked.

The duo averted their gazes for a moment. Crowley's expression grew grim as he looked at Sky again.

"Nothing," he said and threw a few pieces of scrap metal to the ground. "That's all we found."

Sky looked down at the useless remains for a moment, then her expression started to match Crowley's.

"Again …" she mumbled.

"That's not surprising," the TRV suddenly joined the conversation.

Sky gave her a puzzled look. She thought of what the TRV had said about her soon return again. Patiently waiting for her to go on and hoping that it would connect the dots, Sky replied nothing.

"The teams are all migrating south. You should probably do the same. They're talking about an invincible team that has been terrorizing the North," the TRV said.

"An invincible team?" Sky asked in a critical voice.

"They leave no survivors whenever they attack. Only a few lucky ones have been able to escape to tell the story."

There was a bad feeling in Sky's fuel tank, but she tried to push it aside. She didn't believe the TRV, but as the leader of a team, she couldn't help but be concerned for the safety of the tanks under her command nevertheless.

"There is no such thing as invincible teams," she said, not sounding as convinced as she would have liked to.

"Except us, right?" Barfly said jokingly. His hilarity disappeared as no one answered.


	4. Approaching Threat

There was a heavy yawn as Fox stretched his tracks. Digging them into the ground, he noticed that it had already dried after the storm the day before. He languidly opened his optics to look at the disturbance that had woken him up. Rex was standing next to him and stared impatiently.

"What is it?" Fox asked, not yet turning his turret around as he hadn't decided yet if he was ready to fully wake up or if he would go back to sleep should the matter turn out to be insignificant.

"The Jagdpanther guy is arguing with the Jumbo," Rex grinned. "I think they might start beating each other up. Come quick, before someone does something about it!"

"Hmmm …" Fox rumbled. That could be interesting. He wouldn't want to miss a chance to see the unlikeable tank destroyer get his rear handed to him. But he wasn't a fast tank, and by the time he would have reached the scene of event, the show might have been over already and then he would have gotten up for nothing.

Before he could make a decision, he noticed a strange noise coming from his radio. Blinking, he turned up the volume, but it was just static. Was that thing broken? But why all of a sudden? It took him a moment to notice that the noise wasn't only coming from his own radio, but from Rex' as well, who had turned up the volume too. Rex looked just as confused as Fox was. The noise wasn't very loud, but it was still noticeable that the volume fluctuated.

"What the hell is that?" Rex asked. He turned off his radio and turned it on again, but the noise persisted. Fox flinched as a painfully loud voice talked through the radio. He turned the volume down again until the voice was back to a normal level.

«Anyone else hearing weird static?» Alex asked. «Or am I just imagining it …?»

Their team mates confirmed hearing it too.

"What the hell indeed …" Fox mumbled, more to himself than to Rex.

Rex suddenly looked alarmed.

"This is kinda like … when we were in Ruinberg. Remember?" he said.

Fox had to think for a moment, but then remembered clearly. They had experienced the same phenomenon when they had fought the "ghosts" in Ruinberg. It was a long time ago, but it had left quite the impression on him. As the enemy team had approached, the radios had started making static noise. The closer they had come, the more unbearably loud it had become. But could it really be them? The last time they had fought them, the noise had only started as they had been really close already. If it was actually such a team, that would mean that an attack could be imminent. Fox turned his turret after all now, facing the VK 45.02 B at his side with a concerned expression.

"We should tell the others," he said.

"Do you think it's them?" Rex asked, obviously having followed the same train of thought.

"I don't know, but we shouldn't take any chances."

Rex nodded. Fox turned to his radio, calling Sky's private frequency.

###

Sky paced to and fro with a deep frown. She stopped for a moment to throw a worried look at the rocky cliffs around the base, then checked the dark sky above, then rolled on.

"The invincible team …" she murmured.

She passed Eohelm and Pepper again. The Centurion was silently following her with his optics; the Leopard 1 was doing the same, although not as silently. No one except the three present tanks knew about Fox' and Rex' suspicion yet. The rest of the team was getting restless, however. They expected an explanation what was causing the noise, and wild guesses were being taken already.

"We have to tell them," Pepper said sternly. "Even if it's not what we think it is, every second we hesitate might be one second too late to prepare for a battle."

Sky returned his tense gaze for a moment as he went on.

"It's better to get ready for a battle that doesn't happen than being attacked completely unprepared!"

Eohelm finally spoke up as well, his voice pensive.

"He's right. We can't be too cautious. If Fox is right, they might arrive here very soon and if that happens, we need to be ready to defend ourselves."

"Sure, let's just fucking tell everyone that we are going to face a team that has completely exterminated everyone in their path so far," Sky snapped. "And that we're going to face them without being able to coordinate our actions, while we're at it. That's going to make everybody worry a lot fucking less."

She stared at her team mates. What they were suggesting was out of question for her. But unfortunately, they had a point. If they didn't do anything about this possible threat, they would possibly put everyone's lives in grave danger.

"We don't have to be _that_ honest," Eohelm said. "You didn't tell anyone about what the TRV said, did you? They don't know about the rumours, so they won't panic." He seemed hesitant to speak on, but then did it anyway. "But apart from all of that … Abandoning the base is always an option. If we really will be without our radios, our chances of winning will be significantly lower. It might be a risk not worth taking." He shrugged uneasily. "I have never been in such a situation, and neither have I heard of anyone else. Frankly, I'm not sure if I can work out a good strategy for such unusual circumstances in a short time."

Sky stopped pacing and dropped her gaze with frustration.

"And then? Will we run from them until the goddamn end of time?" she asked quietly.

Eohelm and Pepper looked at each other. There was probably a silent conversation going on between them. After a few moments, Pepper spoke again.

"You are the leader. _You_ have to make a decision," he said soberly.

Sky frowned at them; then she turned her turret away.

"Everyone, be quiet for a moment and listen," she spoke into her radio, her voice composed, but in a forced sounding way. "The noise is caused by an approaching team. We will fight them, but we won't be able to use our radios."

There were a alarmed responses and everyone started talking over each other.

"I said _listen_ ," Sky said vehemently. When everyone had finally fallen silent again, she went on. "A briefing will follow shortly. I want everyone to stay calm and wait for instructions. We will handle this, like we handled every fight so far. Over."

The radio frequency remained unusually silent after that announcement, except for the static noise that was slowly increasing in volume.

###

A harsh wind dragged at Goggles' wings and fuselage as she flew increasingly sized circles above the base at a low altitude. Her gaze was attentively scanning the ground, looking for any signs of an enemy team. Sky had told her that they might be very close, but apparently not as close as they feared.

"Nothing yet," the Stuka reported. "No one's anywhere in sight."

«Good, but keep looking,» Sky replied.

' _Well, duh,_ ' Goggles thought. Except that she could barely hear her own thoughts with all that noise from her radio. It was growing in volume slowly but steadily, also making communication somewhat troublesome by now. ' _They have to be somewhere …_ '

She passed over the area south of the base, but still couldn't see anything. Obviously, the ocean west of the base didn't hide any attackers either. As she continued her loop northward however, she saw something move in her peripheral vision. She hadn't thought of checking the skies. After all, tanks hadn't achieved flight yet as far as she knew. But as she raised her gaze, it seemed like they had indeed. A silly memory of Arty talking about skytanks that she had learned about in Ruinberg popped up in the Stuka's mind. Skytanks … what nonsense. But as she looked closer, there was definitely _something_ up there. Goggles hadn't seen another plane in a long time, but it had to be one. She tensed up, then immediately flew back into radio range of her team mates to tell Sky about her discovery.

"Looks like whatever they are, they have a plane," she said as soon as she got close to the base's border.

«That's … bad,» came the grim response.

"It's flying around north of the base, but I can't see any tanks yet so I don't know if they're there as well."

«Okay. Keep observing the plane and tell me what it's doing.»

Goggles turned around and returned to her previous position. Once there, she watched the other plane for a couple of moments. It didn't seem to be approaching. She didn't want to risk getting seen in return however — if it wasn't too late already — and quickly pulled up her nose, disappearing into the thick clouds above. Flying back to the base again, she only dared to lower her altitude again as she was sure that she was out of sight.

"It's not really doing anything," she reported.

Sky confirmed receiving the information. Goggles flew another loop. She could see a couple of tanks drive towards the southern parts of the base; they were probably taking the fuel and spare parts to a safe place, assuming that the enemies would attack from the North. She could also spot some of her other team mates, which seemed to have taken positions already in preparation for the fight.

Before she could leave the radio range again, Eohelm contacted her.

«Goggles, you will have to take care of the plane. Once you shot it down, try to support us as well as you can.»

Goggles confirmed the order, but as soon as she was out of range, she grimaced vocally.

"Take care of the plane!" she repeated with exasperation. "Of course, cause I'm a fighter!" Sometimes she couldn't believe how ignorant the tanks were about fundamental plane things, time and again.

"I'm fucked. We're all fucked," she murmured.

###

The minutes seemed to crawl. The noise in the radio was getting louder. With the sighting of the plane, it was no question anymore if _something_ was coming for them. The only question was the one of time.

Eohelm, who was standing close to her, was wrapping up his briefing while he still could, and Sky couldn't help the feeling that his plan was really just a weak _excuse_ of a plan. But it would have to do. As long as they stuck to it, and if it really worked, this could end well for them. If not …

Sky closed her optics and took a deep breath. As she opened them again, she looked to her right, where Crowley and Barfly had appeared. They were on their way to their positions — they would provide fire support for Fox and Rex, who would be the first line of defence. The Shermans halted as they were about to pass her by. Their expressions were concerned as well, but determined.

"Just wanted to say … Good luck," Crowley said. Barfly just smiled at his leader, even though the smile looked uneasy.

Sky nodded at them.

"Good luck to you too," she said in a firm voice.

The Shermans bowed to her before driving on.

A moment later, Sky received a hectic transmission from Goggles.

«Tanks approaching from the North, about a kilometre away. It's a whole team, about twenty of them.»

"Understood," Sky replied. She watched Goggles fly over the base and back northward after a big loop. She looked at Eohelm next, who returned the look after a moment of looking at the sky as well.

"It's time," the Pershing said.

Eohelm gave her an encouraging nod.

Sky turned to her radio, having to shout over the static now.

"Team, Sky. Get ready. They're coming."


	5. All Or Nothing

From up above the clouds, everything seemed peaceful. It would have been a relaxing sight for Goggles, hadn't she known that a battle was just around the corner. A battle where she would be up against another plane, and where her whole team would depend on her dealing with that plane.

' _Maybe it's just a spotter plane,_ ' she tried to calm herself down.

She tried to shrug off her worry and get into the right mindset for a battle, focusing on the weather conditions and her instruments. It was time to peek out of the clouds again. She had to risk another glance at the enemy plane. But even if it did anything suspicious, it was too late now to report that activity to her team. Everyone, including her, had turned off their radios already. Goggles was completely on her own. Only one of the planes would survive this encounter, so much was for sure. She could only hope that it was her.

Readying her cannons just in case — even though she knew that their usefulness was limited in this situation — she dove and took an anxious look around as soon as she had emerged from the clouds again. What she saw almost made her engine stall. The hostile plane had gotten much closer all of a sudden; in fact it was approaching at a breakneck speed. That alone would have been intimidating to the Stuka. But what made her panic in that very moment was the fact that she recognised that model.

A Spitfire.

Goggles yelped, and didn't hesitate a single second as she immediately turned around. She didn't have the _ghost_ of a chance against that plane. There was nothing on her mind but sheer terror as she flew away as fast as she could, not even looking back once.

###

' _Remember, they are …_ probably _remote controlled. If we can find the command tank and kill it, this can be over very quickly._ '

Eohelm's words echoed in Awol's mind as he watched the northern part of the base through his artillery sights. His gaze was darting around, looking for anything that moved. But the distance was great, and he could barely see anything at all. A column of heavy tanks could have probably sneaked past his sights without him noticing. Frustrated, he kept looking for a while longer, but then switched back to his normal sights. There was something that was distracting him immensely. He looked at the Sturmpanzer II next to him. Arty was humming some kind of unrecognisable melody.

"Please stop," Awol said.

Arty twitched and went quiet at once, looking at the Wespe with an almost shocked expression.

"Sorry," she said quickly. "I'm just nervous …"

"It's okay," Awol replied. Even if he didn't show it as obviously, he was nervous as well, even more now than before their previous battles. He threw a worried look down the road that lead down from the South Plateau to the town. A good scout could probably spot them all the way from down there. Without their radios, they wouldn't know that a tank was on its way to them. The only one who could warn them — their only defence — was a little tier 1.

Noob was hiding behind a bush, not far away from the two SPGs' position. The Leichttraktor had turned his turret around and gave his team mate a thumbs-up with his cannon as he noticed Awol's gaze. Awol couldn't help but smile, but his smile grew tormented quickly.

A sudden faint noise above them kept him from dwelling on this thought any longer. It was the noise of an engine. Awol raised his gaze to the sky, but couldn't see anything except the dark clouds. The noise grew louder however. He shuffled on his tracks anxiously, looked at Arty, who was inching backwards as well.

Could it be Goggles? But why was she returning to the base? Awol had an incredibly bad feeling about this. The noise passed right over the low tiers, and then grew quiet again as it receded southward, away from the base.

"She's flying away …!" Arty gasped. She was looking at Awol with an aghast expression. "Why is she flying away?"

"I — I don't know," Awol said, his voice trembling with concern.

A moment later, they could hear engine noises in the sky again. Awol was breathing a sigh of relief.

"She's coming back," he said, but Arty started frowning deeply.

"That's not her," she said quietly.

Only now Awol noticed that the noise was coming from the north again. His optics grew wide as he spotted a silhouette in the distance. It was growing quickly. Awol started rolling backwards instinctively, his gaze glued to the plane that was approaching the base.

"… _no_ …" he whispered, now realising the full extent of what he had witnessed moments ago. Goggles had been _running_ from whatever was flying towards the base right now. She wasn't going to come back. She wasn't going to "take care" of that plane … and it was now coming for them instead.

He watched the plane fly a tight circle above the base, as if it was looking for something. A tank cannon was fired, in a futile attempt to shoot down the nimble aircraft. Then, suddenly, the plane made a sharp turn. Awol realised too late that it was coming straight for his and the other low tiers' position to run.

It was a matter of mere seconds until the plane right was above them. There was a terrible whistling sound — a blinding flash of light — a deafening crash.

###

Eject stared at where a giant explosion had happened behind him just seconds ago. He could feel the blast wave, even here at the other end of the base. The cliffs were blocking his line of sight, but from what he _had_ seen, he could assume that the plane had dropped a bomb somewhere near the South Plateau, or even right onto it. His expression grew grim.

"Straight for the arty," he murmured.

If the bomb had hit its target, there was a very slim chance that the low tiers had survived. But there was nothing Eject could do about it right now. There was also no time to mourn. The plane was out of sight also. Hopefully, it had only carried a single bomb. Eject turned his turret back around, directing his gaze back at the road before him. Fox was positioned a little way ahead on the other side of the road and had angled his hull behind a shoulder of rock, his cannon facing the valley that formed the northeastern entrances to the base. The King Tiger hadn't looked back like Eject did, but he was quietly hissing something. Behind them, a Jumbo could be heard cursing loudly.

The sound of cannons suddenly tore through the air. It came from the west, where Rex, Rill, and Barfly were watching the other valley. It had begun. Eject didn't take his optics off the valley, and a moment later, the roar of an engine announced a tank approaching fast. Eject made sure that he had loaded a shell and waited for the unknown tank to appear in his sights. He almost pulled the trigger out of reflex when a dark green light tank came dashing towards them, but recognised his team mate in the last moment.

"Incoming!" Alex shouted as he raced down the road towards the heavies. Almost at the same time, a shell whizzed past him, only missing barely. Eject adjusted his sights and now saw two Russian tanks appear in the valley. Fox opened fire on them immediately. His shell ricocheted off his target's sloped armour, but it at least distracted the approaching enemies from chasing the light tank any further. They took cover behind rocks immediately and started shooting back.

"They've become smarter!" Fox growled, loud enough for Eject to hear him clearly this time.

The T29 focused on aiming instead of answering. He fired, and a turret was sent flying, crashing into the cliffside.

"Not too smart to die," Eject said.

He started reloading his cannon and made sure again that his hull wasn't showing from behind his cover. A shell bounced off his thickly armoured gun mantlet, causing only another scratch on it. Another shell flew past his turret, but from behind him, telling him that Crowley had a line of fire too, although Eject wasn't sure how much the medium's gun could achieve in this situation. A moment later, Eject noticed something moving further down the road. Upon a closer look, it turned out to be a light tank, but this one was definitely an enemy.

"Fox, look out!" Eject shouted. The King Tiger fired a second later, blowing up the remaining tank destroyer, but not the light tank that was now less than a hundred meters away.

"Dammit!" Fox hissed, having noticed the other enemy too late, as he had been too focused on killing his original target. The light tank simply drove past them, going for the easternmost road while the heavies could only watch, their cannons reloading.

"Alex?!" Eject said and threw a quick look around, but his team mate was already gone. Sending him to catch the enemy light was not an option. Shifting on his tracks with indecision for a moment, he considered going after it himself. But then, more tanks appeared in the valley.

' _Someone else will have to take care of it,_ ' he thought and took aim at the new enemies.

###

When Awol could see and hear anything at all again, the first thing he saw through his cracked optics was that the road before him had turned into a smoking crater. The path was gone. Even the surrounding cliffs looked like something had taken a giant bite out of them.

And Noob … was simply not there anymore.

Awol couldn't process what was happening.

" _Noob!_ " he screamed. Where had he gone? How could he … He had to be somewhere. He had driven away in time. He was just down the road … Awol switched to his artillery sights and frantically scanned the surroundings, but there was no Leichttraktor. Nowhere. He could hear Arty whimper in pain next to him, but he himself was only remotely aware of the excruciating, burning sensation spreading from all over his frontal armour.

"Noob …"

After what felt like an eternity, he was suddenly nudged in his side. His gaze jerked to his left and he saw Arty look at him urgently.

"They started shooting!" she said, gesturing north. "The enemies are here, we need to help!"

Awol was silent; he just stared at his team mate.

###

Arty didn't know what to do. The Wespe next to her seemed to be completely shell-shocked; he didn't say or do anything even as she repeated her words. Of course Arty was deeply shocked and disoriented as well, but it was crystal clear for her that they couldn't just sit around and do nothing. She tried nudging Awol again — with no result.

Her gaze darted past the other SPG when she noticed an engine noise coming from the east. At first she thought that someone from her team had come to check on them, but this irrational hope was smashed almost immediately as an unfamiliar looking tank skidded around a bend in the road and raced towards her and Awol.

" _Run!_ " Arty cried. A shell that only barely missed the two SPGs emphasised her words. She hurried to turn around and sprinted off, seeing from the corner of her optics that Awol finally seemed to have woken up from his dazed state and was running away as well. But while Arty was fleeing down the road towards the town, Awol had taken the route towards the beach.

The Sturmpanzer almost went airborne for a moment as she drove into the crater in the road. Climbing the other side slowed her down terribly. She threw a fearful look behind her as she was finally back on even ground. The light tank was out of sight again, but she could still hear it. She didn't know if it had gone after her or after Awol, but then there was a loud bang behind her and a shell buried itself into the ground just mere meters to her left. That answered her question. Another look behind her told her that the light tank had a line of sight on her again. It was gaining ground quickly. Arty screamed as a shell grazed her side. The town was in sight, but she doubted that she would make it.

The light tank was suddenly next to her, and she could clearly see its complete lack of any expression as it sped past her and then made a U-turn, sliding to a stop to cut the Sturmpanzer off. Arty's optics grew wide and she hit the brakes. The light tank's cannon was pointed directly at her now. It fired, the shell blowing off a good portion of Arty's right cannon shield cutting right through the thin armour behind it. It only barely missed her ammo rack. Yelping from the pain, Arty however had the presence of mind to shoot back … but missed completely.

Before the light tank could shoot her again, someone else interfered unexpectedly. Three shells came flying towards the light tank. One of them missed; the other two smacked into its side, one of them even passing right through the whole tank. The light didn't make a single sound and turned around at once, fleeing to its left, then making a sharp turn and disappearing between some buildings. Arty looked to her own left, where three tank destroyers had appeared. Her expression brightened up with relief. She beamed at the Jagdpanther, the Ferdinand, and the AT-2 that had just prevented her demise.

"Quick, hide in the town," the Ferdinand said in a rushed tone. "You'll be safer there than here in the open."

"We'll take care of him," the Jagdpanther added.

The AT-2 just grinned at Arty.

She quickly nodded and drove on. Behind her, the tank destroyers went after the light tank. It took a couple of seconds until Arty reached the first buildings. She didn't stop until she was surrounded by them on all sides. Rolling to a halt eventually, she looked around, then checked her artillery sights to see if she could shoot enemies from her new position. Somewhere behind her, to the right, she could hear shots. It seemed like her tank destroyer team mates had found the light and were indeed taking care of it.

Letting her gaze wander, she took a look at what was happening in the northern parts of the base. She could see explosions and movement; it was hard to focus on one particular target. Arty tried anyway, and after several seconds, she was confident enough in her aim to shoot. There was an explosion, followed by a thick cloud of smoke. With a small "Yes!" Arty reloaded her cannon and took aim at the same spot again. She didn't notice that a certain light tank had slipped away from its pursuers and was sneaking up on her in that very moment.

###

"A tracer!" Sky shouted and pointed at the direction of the beach.

Eohelm's gaze followed hers, but he was too slow to see what she had seen. Instead, he caught a glimpse of another tracer that originated from the more southern parts of the town.

"Two tracers," he said with relief. "They're alive."

He looked at Sky again; she slumped noticeably. Eohelm could only imagine the relief the Pershing must have felt right now. Since the detonation of the plane's bomb, she had been completely frozen in place and unresponsive. But that had finally changed just now. She looked around, taking in her surroundings again. Then her turret suddenly traversed quickly, her cannon pointing down one of the streets in front of her. Eohelm couldn't hear or see anyone approaching, but he knew that Sky had a special talent for knowing when a tank was close, so he aimed into the same direction as she did. And truly, he didn't have to wait for long until an engine could be heard. It sounded like it was being pushed to the limit — which suggested that whoever was approaching was in a great hurry.

"Don't shoot! It's me!" a familiar voice shouted, and moments later, Alex appeared between the buildings. Sky and Eohelm lowered their cannons and let him reach them.

"Report," Sky told him the moment he halted in front of her.

"West team had to fall back to the town and a couple of enemies made it to the beach," he said while catching his breath.

Eohelm listened to the noises around them. The shots were much closer already. If the heavies fell back any further, they would soon end up meeting. This wasn't going as planned.

"How many exactly at the beach? What type?" Sky asked tensely.

"Two mediums," Alex replied.

Sky turned around, setting herself into motion.

"Where are you going?" Eohelm asked, rolling after her.

"I'm going to kill them," Sky growled.

"Wait …!" Eohelm said. "We have to stay here in case —"

"This is more important!" Sky replied sharply.

Alex was looking back and forth between them, then rolled after Sky as well. He went on hurriedly.

"East team took out two of them but they're getting pushed back. A light tank and an ISU-152 managed to get past them and are going down zero line," the light tank said quickly. "Pepper will take them out if they try to take the road to the town, but it's possible that they're going for the South Plateau."

"Do you have any _good_ news as well?" Sky asked him without looking back.

"What are your orders?" Alex asked in return, ignoring the question.

Sky didn't stop, and didn't answer either. Eohelm cautiously watched their right as he followed her. They left the buildings behind and entered the open space that lead to the beach.

"Sky …?" Alex asked, more urgently this time.

"I …" Sky said, her voice even tenser than before. "I don't know!"

All three tanks flinched as they heard a booming noise above them. It seemed like the enemy plane had returned — it was gliding across the sky, passing over the base at a low altitude. Eohelm tensed up, his gaze darting back to the buildings automatically. They had been in cover there, but out here the plane would easily spot them. And Eohelm didn't want to find out if it had more in store for them.

The Centurion directed his gaze back at Sky, who had slowed down for a moment but was back at going at full speed now, single-mindedly heading for the beach where Awol might have been located. The SPG was her brother, and Eohelm knew that nothing could have held her back right now. But they also had other team mates, and those were in dire need of orders. He looked at Alex, and made a decision.

"I'm taking over command," he said firmly.

"What …?" Sky gasped.

Eohelm ignored her interjection.

"Alex, go find the TDs. Tell them to go join Pepper. If the enemies flank us, we'll be in trouble. Tell the east and west team to hold their positions, Sky and I will come to support them as soon as we took care of the beach. If you see the SPGs, tell them to go back to the South Plateau."

Sky had turned her turret around and was staring at him, but then slowly nodded. Alex saluted and quickly raced off southward.

###

Almost soundlessly, the enemy light tank was rolling through the streets of the village. It slowly crept around a building corner, focused only on its target — a completely oblivious Sturmpanzer. The SPG was standing in the middle of the street, cannon raised high as she was aiming at something. The noise of her engine had drawn the light tank to her like a moth to a flame. Now it took aim at her, being completely unaware that it was right in the centre of someone's reticle itself.

A cannon roared. The light tank blew up like fireworks. Arty flinched and turned around with deep confusion and fright spread all over her features. She found herself looking at a reloading Jagdpanther, hidden half behind a building.

"Fang …!" she gasped.

The addressed tank destroyer gave her a curt nod.

"Let's not have this become a habit," he said and drove out onto the street.

"Sorry, I'll be more careful," Arty said sheepishly. Behind Fang, the other two tank destroyers appeared. It had taken them a moment to catch up with the faster Jagdpanther.

"What now?" the AT-2 asked. His cannon moved about quickly as he was looking around.

There was a drawn-out "Hmm" from the Ferdinand.

Fang looked north, where the hostile plane could be seen flying a big loop. It would be back in a few moments, probably. When that happened, Fang didn't want to be out in the open. As for the ground, the noise of the fight had stopped coming closer, which probably meant that his involuntary team mates were able to hold the attackers back for now.

He was about to make a suggestion when something moved in the corner of his optics, somewhere behind Arty. Without a single thought, his cannon jerked around and he fired. There were two loud yelps, one from the startled Sturmpanzer, and one from the light tank that Fang had just barely missed.

"Look before you shoot!" Alex wheezed. He was staring at the little crater right in front of his tracks for a moment.

"Think before you sneak up on us," Fang replied coolly.

Alex shook off his state of shock, then quickly resumed rolling past Arty and towards the tank destroyers.

"Arty, the town isn't safe for you," he told the SPG as he passed her by.

"Where should I go instead?" she asked.

"Return to the South Plateau," Alex replied. He turned to the tank destroyers again as he reached them.

"You need to support Pepper," he said without stopping, instead accelerating already to continue his mission of passing on orders to the rest of the team. Fang turned on the spot, following the light tank with his sights.

"What about the heavies?" he asked.

"Just do it!" Alex replied impatiently as he raced off.

Fang looked at the other tank destroyers; the Ferdinand nodded pensively, then turned towards Arty.

"You're coming with us," he said.

Arty blinked at him.

"But Alex said —"

"If you do that, you'll get yourself killed."

As if to emphasise his words, they could hear the enemy plane fly over them. It circled above the path to the South Plateau for a few moments before it veered north again.

"You might be able to hide there, but you'll never make it that far," the Ferdinand went on matter-of-factly.

Fang didn't feel like wasting their valuable time with a discussion, so he drove out to Arty and gave her a not-so-gentle shove.

"Come on now, you'll thank us later!" he said. The SPG looked shocked at the rough treatment, but finally nodded and started moving.

###

Dirt and pieces of brick rained down on Rill's turret and hull. The wall he was standing behind was suddenly mostly gone. Squinting through the cloud of dust, he quickly trained his sights on the enemy tank just across the street, and fired before it could take cover behind the neighbouring building again. There was no sound of pain, no agonised expression as it took the hit. No telling if it had taken serious damage, or any damage at all. The only indicator of its health was that it was still moving, backing up behind its cover.

Rill backed up as well, bringing more walls between himself and the enemy tanks as he reloaded. A shell hit the ground where he had been just moments ago.

They were up against four enemy tanks — three heavies and a medium. Rill and his two team mates were firing their cannons relentlessly, but the hostile tanks just seemed to keep coming. Whenever they took one out, a new one was already waiting in line.

' _Just how big is this team?_ ' the KV-4 thought. He alone had killed three tanks by now; Rex was killing another one in that very moment. They had no other choice but slowly let themselves be pushed back into the town, backing up little by little with every shot and every new enemy tank appearing. Some had already slipped away onto the beach, and unless Eohelm and Sky could take care of them, they would soon flank around. For now, the west team could still hold the enemies back, but Rill wasn't confident that this would be the case for much longer.

###

Sky had started trading shots with the two medium tanks that had climbed up from the beach. It seemed like they weren't going for the arty, but instead trying to flank the town. That was one problem less; Sky was sure that she could take care of them. A shell bounced off her armour harmlessly and she placed one of her own right between the turret and the hull of one of the enemy tanks, taking out its turret ring.

Eohelm was backing her up, positioned at the other side of the building to Sky's right. He was firing at the mediums as well and had managed to track the other one.

Taking cover, Sky reloaded. She was about to roll back out when she noticed the almost ever-present roar of the enemy plane's engine approach them again. She assumed that it was just going to fly over them again, but she was very wrong. With the building blocking her line of sight on it, she didn't see it coming, but she clearly heard the whistle. It was terminated by a bang — so loud that it was physically painful — and an explosion of debris pelting the Pershing's side with the force of what felt like a train hitting her. A thick billow of dust was rolling across the ground, obscuring the surroundings from Sky's view. For a moment, all shooting ceased.

Sky coughed and shook her turret; remains of the building next to her and dirt slid off it. As she took a hectic look around, she realised that most of the building had collapsed.

' _Eohelm …!_ ' she thought with alarm. Under the resuming enemy fire, the Pershing backed up and drove around the back of the ruins. Eohelm was there, half buried under debris. It seemed like the bomb had barely missed him, hitting only the building instead of the tanks. But he still wasn't moving.

"Eohelm!" Sky shouted. She bumped into the motionless Centurion. His cannon was drooping, but he didn't seem severely wounded. The blast had probably just knocked him out. Sky bumped into him again, trying to get him to wake up, but to no avail. She cursed, then drove past him and re-engaged the enemy tanks. They obviously hadn't expected her to pop up at the other side of the building and she managed to land a good shot on the tracked one. But as soon as they seemingly realised what was going on, both of them took aim at her.

Screaming out with pain and frustration as a shell penetrated her hull, she directed a string of curses at the enemies as she fired back. Of course she didn't get even the hint of a reaction. Instead, she noticed movement behind her. There would have been no way she could have turned around her turret in time to face the quickly approaching tank, but luckily for her, it turned out to be Alex.

"Report!" Sky said, ducking away under an enemy shell.

The light tank came to a skidding halt behind her.

"They can't hold them back much longer! There's — so many of them!" he said in a hounded tone. "Enemy tanks are slipping past, they're in the town!"

Sky's expression darkened with every one of his words. She anxiously threw a look behind her.

"Orders?" Alex asked. His turret was traversing around hastily, sights scanning the border of the town. Above them, the plane could be heard circling again.

" _Fucking hell_ …" Sky hissed to herself. They had to get away from here if they didn't want to turn into plane fodder after all, but could she and a light tank deal with the enemies in the town on their own? After a moment of frantic thought, she turned to Alex. "Follow me," she said and started affixing her towing ropes to Eohelm's hull. As soon as she had done that, she backed up, pulling him along until they were out of the line of fire.

Alex backed up with her, all while looking at her with worry written all over his features. It was obvious that he wasn't sure whether he could trust her judgement. Sky couldn't do anything about that right now. She turned around and started hurrying back into the town. It would only be a question of a couple of minutes until the enemy medium still capable of driving would realise that she was gone. That was a tight time frame to take care of whatever number of enemies would await them in the town. But it was either that or waiting until said enemies showed up to shoot her in the back.

They reached the town's buildings a few moments later. Sky's inner tension grew even more as she followed Alex through the streets, looking for the enemies he had mentioned. The search was ended abruptly by a shell appearing seemingly out of nowhere. With wide optics, Sky watched flames shoot out of every gap in Alex' armour. The light tank died with a terrible scream. Sky hit the brakes and swung her cannon around to the origin of the shot. A T30 had appeared further down the street, its reloading cannon pointed at the Pershing now. Sky pulled the trigger on impulse. Her shell hit the spare tracks on the tank destroyer's hull, which caused it to ricochet despite blowing them off. She looked to the left as a T28 suddenly popped up in the neighbouring street.

She kicked her engine into reverse gear, bumping into Eohelm. Her gaze darted back and forth between the two approaching tank destroyers, and she had no doubt that her time was up.

###

It was a fact to Rill that this fight was lost. He backed up behind the next available cover and threw a look to his side, where Rex was slowly rolling backwards as well. The VK suddenly took a shoot to his cannon.

"I'm done!" Rex yelled a moment later. "Aus, Ende!"

Rill grimaced. That was a very lucky hit. Either an accident or an act of incredible precision. The latter seemed unlikely, considering the poor accuracy that these enemies had shown so far throughout the whole battle. Unless … He looked at the direction the shot had come from. Another enemy tank had just appeared further in the back. The FCM 50t's cannon was still smoking. It backed up slightly behind one of its team mates. Rill didn't hesitate and shot it before it could disappear completely. The thing that caused him to do a double-take was the fact that the French tank yelped as it was hit.

' _The command tank._ '

Maybe the battle wasn't lost after all. Before he could inform the others about his discovery however, Rex announced their retreat.

"Fall back!" he shouted. He had already turned around and was rushing down the road.

"No, wait! Kill the FCM!" Rill shouted back. Rex didn't look back. Rill added, "Barfly!" But the Easy Eight didn't respond either. As Rill looked behind him, his team mate was already out of earshot, having turned around as well to do what Rex had told him.

The KV-4 stayed behind and tried to reload, but had to find that there was nothing left to load. He had used up all of his ammo. He cursed under his breath. There were shells whistling past him. The enemies were closing in. Rill had no choice but to follow his team mates. He couldn't turn around without exposing himself, however. Keeping his sights trained at the tanks in front of him, he accelerated backwards.

He didn't make it very far before he suddenly bumped into something. Flinching, he looked behind him and found himself standing back to back with Eject, who seemed just as startled.

"I take it we've lost," the T29 said soberly as soon as he had recovered from his moment of surprise.

"We can still win if we —" Rill said, but Eject interrupted him.

"Fox and the Shermans are clearing an escape path for us, this might be our only chance at making it out of here alive," he said grimly.

Rill nodded and the two heavies set themselves into motion.

###

Sky was staring at the two tank destroyers like a deer caught in the headlights, when all of a sudden, the T28 burst into flames. The T30 had reached the conjunction and turned its turret around to look at the cause of its team mate's sudden death. Sky followed its gaze and was too surprised to even breath a sigh of relief when she saw Pepper drive out from behind the burning tank destroyer. The Leopard 1 was sprinting towards the conjunction, evaded a shell from the T30, and circled it until he had reloaded and could take it out as well.

"We have to run!" he said to Sky as he stopped in front of her.

The Pershing gaped at him like he had just said the most alien thing she had ever heard.

"N-No!" she said.

Pepper gesticulated at the streets behind her wildly.

"Now is not the time to be obstinate! The battle is over!" he said urgently. Sky scrambled for words, but Pepper obviously had no intentions of having a discussion. "Suit yourself!" he said and raced off.

"Wait!" Sky yelled after him. She stared at the cloud of dust he left behind, then turned around as fast as she could as a shell hit her turret. The medium tank from the beach had caught up with her. She shot its hull, taking it out. With a wild glare, she traversed her turret to aim down the streets as she felt more tanks approaching.

"Who's next?! Come and get some!" she spat.

"Sky!" Barfly's voice shouted. He appeared behind a bend in the street, Crowley by his side. Sky lowered her cannon, but the grim look didn't disappear from her features.

"Sky, come with us!" Crowley said as they reached her. "We have to get out of here!" The two Shermans nudged her, trying to get her to turn around. Sky heard engines down the road, and her determined expression started to crumble. She looked past her team mates, where pillars of smoke were ascending to the dark clouds. There were cannon shots somewhere to the east. As much she didn't want to admit it, the base was lost. She dropped her gaze and turned around, towing Eohelm behind her as she joined the fleeing tanks.


	6. Plans In Motion

"More to the left! … I said left!"

There was a big crash that made the tanks all across the base flinch. Some turrets had turned around, either out of curiosity or alarm at the sudden loud noise. A Centurion ARV was staring at the wall that had just fallen over, and if he had had a face and hands, he would have buried the former in the latter. Unfortunately, he possessed neither, so all he could do was blow a frustrated puff of air through his vents.

"Do you not know left from right?!" he asked his fellow TRV, who looked like he didn't understand how his actions could have lead to this result. The assistant was standing up on the scaffolding, the sheet of metal that he should have placed on top of the walls in front of him still dangling from his crane. He made a pensive "Hm", then turned to the Centurion ARV.

"What now?" he asked.

The addressed TRV sighed heavily.

"What do you think?"

There was another "Hm". The Centurion ARV returned the blank look that he was getting for several seconds, before he gave the other TRV a hint.

"The wall isn't going to re-erect itself, is it?" he asked. "Get to work!"

With a subdued - but clearly disgruntled - noise, the assistant climbed back down from the scaffolding and put the piece of roof aside to do as he had been told.

'At this rate, we won't be done in ten years,' the Centurion ARV thought crossly. He watched the other TRV fumble around with the wall for a while, until his attention was directed somewhere else.

The base was surrounded by walls on all sides, with two gates leading in and out. One of these gates was being opened right then. The Centurion ARV had a line of sight, and his optics were immediately caught by the unexpected visitor that was driving through it.

The Leopard 2A1 was painted black, and escorted by two tier 10s. The surrounding tanks stopped what they were doing to salute him. He didn't return the greetings, just slowly let his gaze wander across the base as he drove on. Eventually, his sights met the Centurion ARV's. He drove straight up to the TRV, who had started frowning. Halting as he reached him, the Leopard gave a slight nod of his cannon.

"Graverobber."

The Centurion ARV nodded back.

"Nosferatu … Your visit comes as a surprise," he said.

"He knows of it," the Leopard replied matter-of-factly. He raised his gaze past the TRV when there was a crash a moment later. Graverobber didn't need to look back to know that the wall had fallen over yet again. His assistant was probably too busy staring at the visitor to pay attention to his work. He didn't bother reacting to the repeated display of incompetence, and instead spoke on.

"If I had known, I would have made accommodations …"

"There's no need for that. I will not stay for long," Nosferatu said. He set himself into motion and rolled past the TRV, who turned around to follow him.

"I see the construction work is progressing well," Nosferatu went on, his gaze wandering again. "The last time I was here, it was nowhere near this state of completion." He looked down as his tracks suddenly produced a faint, splashing noise. The two tanks were driving through a puddle of oil-streaked water that originated from somewhere to their right.

"The sewerage needs improvements still," Graverobber explained with a shrug and couldn't help adding a piqued, "Of course that wouldn't be necessary if everyone stopped pouring their used oil into the drain."

"Constructed bases have their disadvantages," Nosferatu replied indifferently.

They drove on in silence, until they reached a hangar that differed from the other buildings around it. Next to its gate, a big "X" with a rhombus underneath it had been painted on the wall. Graverobber drove forward and opened the door, waiting for Nosferatu to enter. The Leopard's escorts waited outside as he drove inside, followed by the TRV, who closed the door again behind them.

The hangar's silent inside was dimly lit, the only light coming from two strip lights in the back of the room. The two tanks slowly rolled forward. They passed five vehicles, two standing next to the left wall, three by the opposite wall — a tank of each class. Their cannons were raised, their hulls completely motionless. Graverobber was so used to the sight that he barely paid attention to it. Instead his gaze was directed at the far wall, which was mostly covered by a big piece of tarp draped across it. It too featured the insignia seen on the outside, just larger.

Below it, a portion of the floor was raised, and another motionless tank was standing on top of it; the dark green parts of its armour appeared almost black in the weak light. This one was emitting a low engine noise. Its shape was distinct, unique amongst the tanks of the known world. They called the model the M1A2; it was the first and only one of its kind.

Graverobber and Nosferatu approached it. Nosferatu drove up to the pedestal, but Graverobber stopped sooner, keeping himself in the background. As soon as the Leopard halted, the tank in front of him spoke to him with a calm, deep voice.

"Welcome."

Nosferatu nodded and the other tank went on.

"What are the news that you bring?" the M1A2 asked.

"Good ones," Nosferatu replied. "We are continuing our advances in the South, with very few casualties. The new fighter planes are giving us a considerable edge."

The M1A2 started smiling.

"Another one of your ideas turns out to be brilliant," he said. Nosferatu didn't respond to the praise, humble as always. The M1A2 went on, still with the content smile on his features.

"I have been told that you've reached the South Peninsula."

"We did indeed, but it is very thinly populated. It seems like the teams have fled, except for a handful. Sustaining our forces proves to be difficult with the little fuel we can obtain from the ones that stayed behind," Nosferatu said.

"We will send supplies from the mainland then."

"The land may not be worth it," Nosferatu pointed out.

The M1A2's expression grew neutral again.

"We can't risk the teams joining forces and striking back. You know well how much trouble the Confoederatio Helvetica is causing us, and something like that clan but with an aggressive attitude … could be a serious threat."

"Of course," Nosferatu said. He made a short pause before going on. "I have nothing else to report."

The M1A2 nodded, then tilted his cannon.

"I see. But these are all things that you could have informed me of via the radio network. So what is it that you need to tell me in private?" he asked.

"There have been …" Nosferatu began to say.

He paused again, but longer this time as he apparently tried to find the right word. Graverobber couldn't see his expression from his position, so the strange tone of the Leopard's voice was hard to associate with any particular emotion as he spoke again.

"... incidents."

###

The lights were on as Nosferatu entered the small building at the very border of the base. He closed the door behind himself, his gaze immediately caught by the tank in the back of the room. He approached the Patton, who didn't move or show any other signs of being aware of his presence. She was silent except for the low hum of her idling engine. Her view ports were shuttered, which gave the impression of her sleeping.

Nosferatu halted in front of her and watched the other tank for a few moments. She looked peaceful as she sat on top of the blanket on the floor beneath her. Her armour didn't have a single dent; her camouflage paint was stainless and even her tracks showed no signs of wear. Since the construction of the new base, she had barely ever left this building.

"Hey. It's me," Nosferatu said quietly.

The Patton slowly opened her optics, but they were staring straight through him. Her features were completely lacking any kind of expression.

With a warm smile, Nosferatu produced a can from his stowage and put it down next to her.

"I've brought you fuel."

There was no answer as she started ingesting the fuel. Nosferatu watched her.

"They are taking good care of you, are they?" he asked. The Patton finished her fuel silently and Nosferatu's smile flaked off his features. He picked the can up again and put it away. As the Patton shut her optics again, he drove to her side and parked himself next to her. His cannon sank as silence continued to fill the building.


	7. Schism

The sun had risen high into the sky, but it was still hidden by thick storm clouds. A few waterdrops were falling down to the earth, but not enough to call it rain. A hummed melody, interrupted every so often by the growl of thunder, wafted through the silence above the fourteen tanks that were driving towards an unknown destination, slowly making their way through rolling hills, across green meadows and past tall, slim trees.

Some of the tanks were driving together, however there were no verbal conversations. Many cannons were lowered, as if the recent defeat was weighing them down. Most expressions were grim. No one knew where the trek was going to lead them, not even Sky. She wasn't leading the way, instead driving at the end of the convoy. But she had given simple orders. Drive southward until she decided that the team had brought a sufficient amount of miles between them and their old base.

Among the general gloominess, it was hard to tell who was the most devastated. One tank had his suspicions, and — maybe partly due to the lack of anything better to do — had created a little ranking in his mind. The obvious winners in Fox' list were Sky and Awol, but it was a close tie with Rex. The VK took the defeat very personal. He was somewhat spoiled by numerous victories. Losing wasn't his style. Neither was running away. Yet, both had happened. And on top of that, he had lost a friend. He appeared quite calm at the moment, but Fox knew that on the inside, he was seething. That was about to change, however.

Rex had just been silently driving next to Fox since they had fled, gazing into the distance and not saying a word the whole time; but then he suddenly turned his turret and glared to the side for a moment. He mumbled a growled "Excuse me" before accelerating ahead. Fox looked after him, puzzled at the other tank's seemingly unprovoked anger. He then looked to the side as well, where the source of the humming was driving along: Rill. He seemed to notice the look. Moments later, Fox received a message from him.

" _Your friend is quite upset about the defeat._ "

That explained Rex' moodswing at least. Fox knew that the VK should be approached with caution when he wasn't feeling well, and it seemed like Rill had either not known or disregarded this.

" _You don't seem too bothered,_ " Fox replied.

The KV-4 stopped humming.

" _I've seen defeats before,_ " he said.

" _The base is a great loss._ "

" _The rest...not so much,_ " Rill added.

" _The light?_ "

Rill only looked at Fox from the corner of his optics for a moment.

" _A tier 1? Does that feel like a loss to you?_ " he asked eventually.

Fox shrugged.

" _Claiming that, I'd be lying. I meant the WZ,_ " he clarified.

" _Shame that the he didn't make it,_ " Rill agreed.

" _He was quite useful, wasn't he?_ "

" _It's going to be hard to find a replacement for him._ "

" _It's going to be hard to find anyone at all, it appears,_ " Fox mused.

The other heavy agreed and turned his gaze away, started humming again. Fox kept watching him for a while longer.

It wasn't surprising that Rill didn't share the hurt that the others — but not even all of them — felt over the death of their lowest-tiered team mate. Fox had reckoned the KV-4 as this pragmatic since their very first meeting. He had been wondering if Rill would be open about it, but it seemed like he was testing the waters instead, discreetly looking for like-minded tanks for some reason. The question was if there were any underlying intentions behind approaching only certain team mates about his opinion instead of confronting everyone with it. Fox hadn't experienced the other heavy as someone calculating or scheming, but the King Tiger didn't know him well beyond the side he presented to the others. Heavy tanks were often mistaken for being slow and dull, lacking agenda, but while it was true for many, Fox never underestimated any of his fellow heavies. It was never a bad idea to be wary; the densest seeming tank could be sly beneath the surface.

But it was also possible that he was interpreting too much into this. Rill didn't seem like someone who was actively trying to start fights either. Maybe he simply didn't care enough. Or maybe he was waiting for a suitable moment to voice his opinions. It was likely that such a moment could come soon. One could safely assume that there would be no debriefing of the battle in the form that the Tanking League usually held them. Maybe an attempt was going to be made. But to Fox, it was clear that a fight was going to happen. Was Sky going to be able to keep everyone in check, or was this defeat the straw that finally broke the camel's back? If the inevitable argument escalated, just how ugly would things get this time?

' _We will see,_ ' the King Tiger thought. If it came to the worst, he would have to pick a side; and if he was being honest to himself, he knew which side that was going to be.

###

One of the tanks was driving ahead of the others. Pepper couldn't have been more glad to do the scouting job. He didn't want to see or hear anyone; he couldn't bear being looked at by them when he felt judgement in every gaze, regardless of whether it was _really_ there. Maybe no one was blaming him for the defeat ... Maybe he had failed as the highest tiered team member. Could a single tier 10 have prevented the defeat? Pepper didn't know, and that uncertainty was eating him up.

He slowly rolled up the hill ahead of him, peeking over the top before driving onto the ridge. Halting, the Leopard 1 let his weary gaze wander about. A stiff breeze pushed at his back, chased waves across the grass, shook the leaves on the trees and bushes. It would have been hard for him to make out a possible enemy with all that movement around him, but he was mostly unconcerned about that fact at the moment. There was simply no one here. None of the hilltops, hedgerows, or groups of trees were concealing any tanks. No convoys were anywhere in sight. The radio channels were dead silent. The closest to a tank he had seen all day was a trail of track marks, but they had petered out soon.

' _They really have all fled,_ ' he thought.

In the distance, he spotted what looked like buildings surrounding a couple of hills; even though he doubted that anyone was there, he wasn't going to take any risks. Also, if it was a base, maybe someone had left something useful behind. It was worth checking out. Dialing Arty's frequency, he told her to come to him. The Sturmpanzer showed up behind him a short while later, hurrying to reach him.

As soon as she was by his side, he pointed at the houses.

Arty nodded and the two tanks set themselves into motion to approach the buildings. Pepper drove a bit ahead to attract possible unexpected enemy fire first. As they had almost reached their destination, Arty switched to her artillery sights and checked for tanks between the buildings. Pepper waited at the border of the little village until Arty confirmed that it was empty except for a wreck. They went about searching likely hiding spots for supplies, but were unsuccessful.

Pepper was in the process of checking one of the buildings when Sky spoke on the team's shared radio channel.

«This looks like a good spot for a makeshift base,» she said. Pepper looked up and through the gaps between the buildings. His team mates had appeared on a hill ridge a little way off, a line of silhouettes against the dark horizon. Sky was standing in their midst. Arty rolled up to Pepper, looking into the direction of the rest of the tanks as well.

"I wouldn't mind taking a break," the Sturmpanzer said dejectedly.

Pepper nodded with a frown.

###

Arty looked at the silent tanks that were surrounding her. The whole Tanking League — except for their captive tank destroyers — had gathered on the biggest hill of their new temporary base as soon as they had deposited their fuel and spare parts. No one had actually called a meeting; it had simply been a hive-mind-like decision to come together. The last ones had arrived just now. Whatever was going to happen, it was about to start.

For a moment, Arty's and Sky's gazes met, but the Sturmpanzer quickly averted her optics.

Even as the moments passed, no one said anything. Everyone seemed to be waiting for some kind of sign. Arty felt that they were waiting for someone to throw the first stone. It was Sky who eventually broke the heavy silence.

"You all have something to say," she said calmly, but with a certain grimness in her voice. "So say it."

It took several more seconds until someone spoke up. All gazes turned to Crowley as he rose to speak, his expression resolute and his voice firm.

"Anyone who starts making accusations now — and I know you're gonna — Anyone who does it, I wanna hear say that they could have done it better. That they could have won the battle if they were in charge."

"No one was going to say that they could have turned the tide of the battle," Eject said. Crowley begun to say something, but Eject talked over him. "It was lost from the very beginning."

"What do you mean?" Sky asked.

"He is right," Fox said. "It was only a question of time until this was going to happen."

Crowley turned to the King Tiger and looked dumbfounded.

"This was no regular battle!" he said. "No normal team would have stood a chance against those ... things."

"We could have won if we —" Rex began to say, his cannon raised with irritation.

"That's where you're wrong, Sherman," Fox interrupted him, responding to Crowley. "A normal team would have won. But we are not a normal team. We are a charity."

"What do you mean?" Sky repeated.

Fox looked at her stoically but Rill replied instead of him.

"We got what was coming to us," the KV-4 said, his tone impassive.

" _What the hell do you mean?_ " Sky barked, throwing angry glances at everyone now, even those who hadn't spoken yet. Arty avoided returning the look and tilted her cannon pensively. The heavies seemed to agree on something that wasn't that obvious to her and the others.

Eohelm, who looked quite uncomfortable, shared his interpretation of the heavies' words.

"It can't be denied that we are not as strong as a team as we could be," he said, seemingly choosing his words carefully as he spoke slowly. "We don't choose our members by skill or survivability."

Sky seemed speechless for a moment, and Arty was shocked as well at what felt like a sudden betrayal on the Centurion's part. She wouldn't have expected him to speak out against their leader. And she also realized that by extension, he was speaking out against herself. Eohelm used the pause to go on.

"That is a fact," he said, pre-empting Sky's protest. "I'm sorry, but it is."

"Low tiers have no place in a team like ours," Pepper added his opinion.

"So," Sky hissed at them, "What are you suggesting? Should I kick them right here and right now?"

Even though Arty knew that Sky wasn't serious, she couldn't help but feel her vents constrict. She knew that Sky had no intention of doing that … but what if the others actually took her up on the offer? She looked at Awol, who was ducking anxiously as well, probably thinking the same. Her gaze wandered on to Jack; the AT-2 shared Awol's expression. Sky went on angrily.

"Should we leave them to die? Or would you prefer fucking chasing them off and wishing them good luck?" she ranted. "If we find someone who is hurt, or alone and starving, will we pronounce them dead? Can you do it in good conscience? I can't."

Barfly tentatively spoke up.

"It's not like we are letting low tiers join every other day …!" he said. Fox frowned at him.

"I feel like the irony of your contribution to this topic is lost on you," the King Tiger said soberly. Crowley immediately shot a glare at him.

"Oh, are the grown ups speaking?" he snapped.

Fox' expression grew into a scowl.

"Know your place," he said. "You and your brother being here is a favour. A big one, from the very start. It's possible to overstay one's welcome."

"You're not speaking for anyone," Sky chimed in indignantly.

"Am I not?" Fox asked her without turning to look at her. Instead, he let his optics graze the other tanks. Arty followed his gaze, looking at Eject, Rill, Eohelm, and Pepper. Their expressions were distant. Then, she looked at Crowley and Barfly again, whose turrets were traversing in an almost unnerved seeming way as they looked at their team members as well.

As looks were exchanged, silence spread between the tanks. It was interrupted by Rex' scandalized voice.

"I can't believe this," he said. "I can't believe you guys."

"Me neither," Sky said in a bitter tone. She threw another dark look at the gathered tanks. It was obvious that the argument wasn't settled, but they remained silent. "Are we done here?" she asked.

Eject started turning around without a word; Rill and Pepper followed suit. They trundled off. Fox turned to leave as well, and Rex followed him after a moment of hesitation. Eohelm approached Sky. Arty used the chance to quickly make an exit — she was glad that this was over, even if it definitely wasn't the end.


	8. The Scapegoat

It was almost time for Sky to return to the base. The afternoon had gone by while she was doing her patrol, and now the evening had progressed far already as well. She, Pepper, Crowley, and Barfly had gone to look for bases and enemies after the argument, leaving the others to guard their makeshift base. As she should have expected, Sky found no one anywhere near, not even as she had long left the radio range of her team.

Her surroundings were so quiet and peaceful that she noticed a sudden faint noise right away. It was far away, sounded like an engine … strangely familiar. She looked around but couldn't find a source of the noise, until she looked up and saw something circle in the sky a couple of hundred meters away. The flying object finished its huge loop, then flew over Sky and into the direction of the Tanking League's base.

Sky watched it with wide optics, then turned to her radio at once to warn the others. But she was reminded that she was too far away as no one answered.

"Goddammit," she hissed and set herself into motion, quickly driving into the same direction that the plane had disappeared into.

###

Rex was sitting by the buildings near the border of the base, talking to Awol and Arty. He was trying to distract himself from his gloomy thoughts by having a conversation with his low tier team mates, who were the only ones who didn't seem like they were in a bad mood. It was working pretty well, and for a while the VK managed to take his mind off the things that had been bothering him all day. It seemed like the cursed day was finally going to end without any further interruption, but that turned out to be wishful thinking.

The heavy's cannon perked up as he heard a noise above them. Immediately alarmed, he instinctively pointed his cannon at the shape in the sky, even though he realized a moment later that this was a pointless gesture.

"A plane," he murmured. It didn't seem to be hostile, or hadn't seen the tanks, because it apparently didn't have any intentions of opening fire on them.

He saw it fly a circle over the base before landing somewhere behind the hills. Rex watched with a concerned frown. The other team mates asked over the radio if anyone else had seen it, and Rill suggested to go take a look.

"Stay here," Rex told the low tiers. "It might be an enemy."

They nodded and took cover between the buildings. The VK started making his way towards where the plane had disappeared, and met Eject and Fox on the way, who were going into the same direction. Rill was visible not far away, on his way to the landing site as well.

"Do you think it's the Stuka?" Rex asked the other two heavies. It had been impossible for him to tell by the shape which model the plane that flew over their base was. He felt that it was unlikely that it was their missing team mate, but it was possible.

"If it's her, she's got some nerve … To come back after leaving us to die, that's brazen," Fox growled.

Rex looked straight ahead pensively. He really hadn't considered the possibility that she could come back, and he wasn't sure what to make of it. Would she have a good explanation for why she left? Her departure had been very sudden, so it was a mystery why exactly she had fled. The general assumption among the tanks was that it had been simple cowardice, but why had she waited and not fled right away at the first sight of the enemies? The more Rex thought about it now, the more enigmatic it was. He was willing to give her the benefit of doubt for now, but if her explanation wasn't very good, he would change his mind without hesitation.

He looked back as someone was approaching from behind them. Eohelm was hurrying towards them. They didn't stop to wait for him, but he managed to catch up anyway.

Before he could say anything, everyone's attention was directed at a hill ridge ahead of them as a big silhouette crested it. The tanks halted, pointing their already loaded cannons at it. Only Rex - whose cannon hadn't been repaired yet - hadn't loaded a shell, but the stranger didn't need to know that, which was why he aimed at them too. It trundled down the hill's side, coming towards them. Rill was close too by now; other than his team mates he hadn't stopped and was still driving towards them while also keeping his gun trained on the approaching plane.

He and the plane reached the others at the same time. From this close, Rex recognized the markings on the wings as Goggles'. He relaxed a little and took his sights off her; the other tanks didn't unload their cannons just yet, however.

Eject rolled forward a little.

"Why did you come back?" he asked.

"I'm sorry," Goggles said, as if that was an explanation. The tanks weren't satisfied with that answer and Eject went on with another question.

"You ran. Why?"

Goggles shifted on her wheels uncomfortably for a moment before she answered, with slight distress in her voice.

"Their plane. It was … a Spitfire. They're much more agile than I am. They eat planes like Stukas for breakfast. I panicked." She made a short pause, then ducked ruefully. "Take me back … please."

"Why should we do that?" Rill asked.

"It wasn't my intention to betray or abandon you. I wasn't thinking thinking clearly," Goggles said.

"Maybe it's not a bad idea," Eohelm said thoughtfully. Before he could explain how he arrived at that conclusion, Eject spoke up.

"How can we be sure that she won't just run away again next time?"

"That's something _traitors_ do, after all," Fox said.

Rex and Eohelm looked at him with surprise. "Traitor" wasn't a term that was thrown around carelessly. Fox returned their gazes firmly, leaving no doubt that he was using it very deliberately. Goggles too looked aghast.

"I'm no traitor!" she gasped.

"A traitor is someone who abandons their team," Fox replied in a cool tone.

Goggles stared at him with obvious despair, but apparently didn't know what to say in her defence.

"What do you think? Isn't that the definition of a traitor?" Fox asked the others.

Rill gave an agreeing rumble from his engine.

"If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck,..." the KV-4 said.

"It doesn't seem to me like she had much of a choice," Eohelm threw in. "Would you have engaged an enemy that is much stronger than you?"

Rex nodded agreeingly. He had no respect for cowards or traitors, but Goggles' reasoning seemed valid. Attacking a much stronger enemy wasn't bravery, it was stupid.

"That's no excuse," Fox said. "She could at least have tried to hurt it."

"And if she had died doing that? Wouldn't have helped us at all either," Rex said.

"And if she hadn't?" Fox asked.

Rill looked at Rex directly.

"She is responsible for Noob's death, don't forget that. If she had tried to stop the enemy plane, maybe she would have succeeded, and maybe he could still be alive," he said. "She chose to dismiss that possibility in favour of saving her own tail."

It took a moment to sink in, but then Rex realized that this was the first time he had heard him actually use the Leichttraktor's name. Could it be possible that Rill had cared more about the little tier 1 than he had let on? In any case, Rex immediately felt a strong pang of still lingering grief and anger at the mention of his deceased team mate. His expression darkened as he looked at Goggles again. She defensively raised her ailerons.

"There was nothing I could have done against that guy! I swear, if I had stayed I wouldn't have achieved anything but dying too," she said, with a certain hint of hectic in her voice now. "What use is a dead team mate to you?"

"What use are you _alive_ , if all you do is guzzle our fuel and run away when we need you most?" Fox asked.

"That's an exaggeration," Eohelm said. "She has been helpful in the past."

"Yeah!" Goggles shouted. "I saved your hides a bunch of times!"

"Are you siding with a traitor?" Rex asked Eohelm, his voice strident now.

Eohelm blinked, bewildered.

"Of course not … !" he said quickly. "But - …"

"I never really liked her anyway," Fox said.

"Planes can't be trusted," Rill added. "Always been like that."

"It was only a question of time until she would betray us in one way or the other. It just figures," Fox agreed.

"No …!" Goggles wheezed. "I told you, it wasn't - …"

She fell silent as the heavies closed in on her menacingly.

"You should better leave now," Rill said and pointed his cannon at her.

Goggles looked from side to side anxiously.

"And you would be wise not to come back this time," Fox said.

The Stuka backed up, but Fox had rolled behind her. Her gaze fell on Eohelm to her right, who however only looked back with an apologetic expression. There was a gap between him and Rex and she quickly turned around, fleeing past the two tanks.

The others didn't pursue her and instead drove up to each other's sides, watching her as she hurried off.

She wasn't even out of sight yet as they suddenly heard Sky's voice on their radios.

«Hello?! Can you hear me?»

They blinked, looking at each other for a moment before Eject confirmed to her that they could. There was some background noise, suggesting that the Pershing was in motion at the moment.

«I saw a plane - I think Goggles is coming back!» Sky went on.

As no one replied, Rill spoke up.

"We know," he said. "She was here."

«Was?» Sky asked. She sounded confused, but like she had a suspicion - one that she didn't like.

"We told her to leave," Rill said, which wasn't a lie, but an understatement in Rex' opinion.

« _What?_ Who told you to do that?»

Rex' gaze darted around. He now realized that they had made a decision of the kind that a leader was supposed to make. But the others had disregarded this in such a spontaneous and casual way that he too had completely forgotten that they weren't the ones in charge.

"We thought it was in your interests," Rill said matter-of-factly.

"We assumed you wouldn't object to kicking a traitor," Fox added.

"I tried to stop them," Eohelm said hastily.

"She was unrepentant," Rex said, joining the effort of justifying their action. He hadn't meant to undermine Sky's authority, and getting on her bad side because of it wasn't what he wanted to happen.

«Miss me with the excuses!» Sky shouted. «Where is she now?»

They looked into the direction where the plane was still in sight.

"About 300 meters," Eject said.

«Tell her to come back!»

Rill looked at Eohelm.

"Go," he said to the Centurion.

Eohelm quickly set himself into motion to fetch the plane before she'd reach a spot from where she could take off.

A couple of minutes later, he returned with Goggles. She didn't say anything, and neither did anyone else. Rex assumed that the others were probably talking to each other through their radios, but no one messaged _him_.

They surrounded the Stuka again, as if they had to make sure that she wouldn't change her mind and run off after all. Rex found it surprising that she had come back again at all after the heavies had made clear what they thought of her and chased her off. But then again, she was starving and simply had no other option than swallowing her dignity right now.

It didn't take much longer until Sky returned. She approached her team mates, only slowing down as she had almost reached them already. As soon as she stood before them, they could see her grim expression. She looked at Goggles and then at the present tanks.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked with poorly concealed anger.

"We did what we thought was appropriate," Rill replied.

"Why didn't you wait until I return? Didn't you think I'd want to have a say in the matter?"

"Do you disagree with the decision?" Fox asked. "Do you not think a traitor should be kicked?"

"I think that she isn't a traitor," Sky said.

That earned her a couple of moments of baffled silence. Rex was the first one to put into words what the heavies all thought.

"How is she not? … How can you defend her after what she did?" he asked the Pershing.

"I am not excusing her actions," Sky replied. "But did you even give her a damn chance to explain herself?"

"Yes," Rill said plainly.

Sky remained silent for a moment, obviously expecting a more elaborate answer. As she didn't get one, she spoke on.

"She came back," she said. "As far as I'm aware, traitors don't do that."

"She only came back because she wants our fuel," Fox pointed out.

"Wouldn't you agree that she is a powerful ally?" Sky asked, trying another approach. "Kicking her, we would harm our team's strength."

"Which makes her desertion all the more heinous," Fox retorted. "If she's that powerful, she maybe could have helped us win the battle."

Rill nodded.

"One could argue that she is at least partly responsible for the defeat," he said.

"Stop twisting my words like that!" Sky snapped.

"Sky is right," Eohelm said. "We really need every help we can get. I understand that you're angry, but we need to put reason before resentment. Everything else would be short-sighted. I think Goggles deserves a second chance."

"Exactly," Sky said. She seemed to sense the protest that was about to arise and went on before anyone could get a word in. "Please tell me. Who is the leader?"

The heavies remained silent for several seconds before Rex answered her question, but only after the Pershing had stared at him.

"You are," he said subduedly.

"So who makes the decisions?" Sky went on, and gazed at Rill this time.

"You do," the KV-4 rumbled.

Sky looked at the others as well; then she spoke in a firm voice.

"My decision is that Goggles stays."

"She -" Fox tried to say, but Sky interrupted him.

" _End of discussion._ "

She ignored the four frowns that were directed at her and turned to Goggles.

"Come with me. We'll find a good spot for you," she said.

Goggles nodded. Sky turned around and drove off, leaving her team mates behind. Goggles threw one last nervous look at the others, then followed the Pershing. Eohelm sighed before driving off into a similar direction. The heavies looked after Sky until she was gone, then Rill turned to Fox.

"A traitorous plane has no place in our team," he said calmly.

Fox frowned deeply.

"You heard our leader's decision," he said in sober tone.

Rill's gaze wandered to Eject, but the T29 remained silent.


	9. Lynch Law

Rill looked up, awaking from his dozing state at the sound of an engine. He turned his turret around and waited a moment for his sights to adjust to the falling darkness around him. The silhouette of a big tank was approaching him. He recognised the distinct shape of Eject's turret. The T29 had barely talked to him so far, so this visit came as somewhat of a surprise. Not enough of a surprise to baffle Rill, though. He looked at his team mate with an impassive expression. The other heavy was wearing his usual frown, not giving away any intent or hints of his current mood.

Eject only stopped as he was just a cannon's length away, not keeping the distance one would keep if he was about to discuss something that was of a public nature. Rill simply raised an optic ridge, but said nothing, waiting for the T29 to make the first move. Eject remained silent for several seconds as well, then slightly traversed his turret. He was probably checking what was going on behind him, which now raised a little spark of interest in Rill. His assumption that something secret was happening was seemingly affirmed. It took only another few moments of curious waiting until the intention of the visit was revealed to him.

"I agree with you," Eject said in a low — but neutral — voice. "The plane needs to go."

Rill blew a puff of air through his vents.

"I see," he rumbled.

The two heavies looked at each other for a couple of seconds, silent again, before Rill went on.

"I'm sure you have a plan."

"Cold-blooded scheming is not one of my expertises," Eject replied coolly.

"It's really not that complicated," Rill said.

An ever so slight change in Eject's expression gave away that he was the one who was curious now. He must have had a hunch, a justified suspicion that Rill had put some thought into this matter already.

"All we have to do is lead her away from the others," Rill went on matter-of-factly. "She might get suspicious if she's smart, after what we said today. But she will probably trust someone who doesn't even know himself yet that he'll be helping us."

Eject's frown became more intense. He didn't understand, that was obvious. Rill got more direct.

"The AT-2."

"Why would _he_ help us?" Eject asked.

Rill shrugged.

"We'll need to figure that out. But he would not seem threatening, isn't blindly loyal to that Pershing, and easily influenced."

"How can you tell?"

"You seemed more observant to me."

"What does that say about you then?" Eject replied deadpan.

' _Touché,_ ' Rill thought, but didn't say it out loud.

Eject seemed to consider the meeting to be over, because he slowly started turning around. He trundled off. Rill directed his optics to the side as he heard more engines. Three tank destroyers had appeared, slowly rolling into his direction. They seemed oblivious to the presence of the heavy tanks, only noticing Rill as they passed him, but not saying anything to him and just continuing their own conversation. Rill looked at Eject again, who was just disappearing behind a building. A moment later he received a nonverbal message through his radio.

" _He'll do it._ "

Rill silently waited for an elaboration, and he got it.

" _The Jagdpanther would never go and tell the Pershing. We wouldn't_ need _his help, but he can get the AT-2 to do it."_

That didn't seem like a bad idea to Rill. Jack had been trying his best to get accepted and liked by the other tank destroyers, so he could definitely be peer pressured into helping with the heavies' plan. Rill hummed in approval.

" _So who goes to talk to the Jagdpanther?_ " he asked.

" _We are not on good terms,"_ Eject replied simply.

Rill didn't answer and instead went to put the plan into motion.

###

There was one thing Arty had been planning to do since the battle, but hadn't had the chance to yet. Now that it was evening and everyone was settling down for the night, the Sturmpanzer was looking for the tank destroyer that had saved her life earlier that day. Not once, but _twice_. It wasn't something out of the ordinary that team mates saved each other during battles, but Arty felt an obligation to give thanks to him anyway. She always did that, as she still didn't take it for granted that someone was looking out for her.

Her artillery sights were aimlessly checking the area, but with little success. She spotted some of her other team mates, but the Jagdpanther she was looking for was nowhere to be seen. It took some straying from the makeshift base until she finally was able to make out Fang's prominent grey and red colours that stood out from the surroundings. She switched back to her normal sights and rolled towards him, but stopped when she was close enough to hear his voice. Or rather, not actually his, but the voice of someone else. Arty blinked and looked through her other sights again, and only now noticed a better camouflaged, second tank.

' _Ah …_ ' she thought and was about to turn around. She didn't want to interrupt the conversation, as it was probably private. After all, why else would it be held so secludedly? She decided to just postpone her thanks to the next day, but froze as she heard a fragment of a sentence.

"… but wouldn't that be teamkilling?" the second tank asked. Arty figured that it had to be Jack, even though she wasn't too familiar with his voice. But more importantly, she was dumbstruck by his words. Teamkilling, that word would have instantly made almost every tank alarmed at least, but Arty all the more. She tried to tell herself that this was probably a harmless conversation, and she was just too sensitive about the subject. She anxiously waited to hear more context, and it seemed like an eternity to her until Fang's raspy voice replied.

"So what if it is?" he said dismissively.

"It's a crime …!" Jack replied. He didn't sound upset, although concerned.

"Where there's no plaintiff, there's no judge. No one will find out. The others will give us an alibi."

Arty was still clinging to the belief that this wasn't what it sounded like. For a moment, she considered just doing what she had wanted to do: leave. And pretend that she hadn't heard anything. But if they were really talking about what she feared they were talking about, she wouldn't have been able to reconcile it with her conscience if she just did that. She needed to stay and find out more. Fang went on, still in the same dismissive tone.

"And I thought you wanted to hang out with us? We don't hang out with wimps who are too coward to do what has to be done. She's scum. We're doing everyone a favour."

He paused for a moment, probably waiting for an answer. As none came, he spoke again.

"But it's up to you," he said, audibly shrugging. "I'm not forcing you."

It felt like his voice was getting closer at the last sentence and Arty quickly looked left and right in search of something to hide behind.

"Wait, I'll do it!" Jack said, louder than his previous words.

Before the Sturmpanzer could roll even a meter, Fang was suddenly standing before her. Her optics grew wide, and he mirrored the expression for a moment before a deep frown took over his features. Jack appeared at his side, looking shocked at the sight of the SPG.

"Well, well, well …" Fang murmured.

Arty suddenly felt terrified of him and inched backwards.

"Oh … hey …" she stammered, trying to act as if she had just arrived here. "What's up?"

She couldn't help but suddenly realize that they might have been talking about her. If that was the case, would they decide to get rid of her right away? After all this seemed like a convenient moment she had been caught in, away from the others; a good moment to be murdered.

"You heard everything, didn't you?" Fang asked, closing in on her slowly.

"I-I won't tell anybody!" Arty chirped, frightened into dropping her attempt to play dumb.

Fang's expression remained dark.

"You'll just run straight to her and warn her …"

"I don't know who …! I really don't," Arty said in despair. She didn't know how convincing it sounded, but also didn't know how to make them believe her. "I didn't hear _everything_ …" At least this meant that she herself wasn't the one who would get killed, but that only left two other possible targets.

For a moment, Fang just glared at her, but then he started turning his hull. He drove past her at a leisurely speed.

"If she finds out, we'll know it was you who told her," he said. There was an unspoken threat, and Arty only managed to give a small nod. Her gaze fell on Jack, who looked at her pensively, but then turned to follow the Jagdpanther without saying a word.

Only as they had already disappeared into the darkness, Arty finally dared to turn back towards the base. She slowly started driving towards it, absolutely clueless what she should do. Either Sky or Goggles were about to get killed, and she couldn't do anything at all about it if she didn't want to share that fate. If she had known who else was involved in this plan, she would have told the rest and maybe they could have foiled it together. But those "others" Fang had mentioned, who were they? If Arty told anyone, who could she even trust? What if they were the majority?

"Ugh," she groaned, slumping down on her suspension as she made her way past the little houses that marked the borders of the base. She flinched as one of the houses turned out to actually be a tank, which she only noticed as it moved. Eject's cannon was pointed at her for a moment, then he turned his turret back around to face the opposite direction of his hull.

"We were about to call you," he said. "What are you doing driving around alone at this hour?"

A few moments passed before Arty replied.

"Nothing," she said, tension in her voice.

Eject either didn't notice it or he didn't care. But his next words sounded strangely like a warning.

"Go join the others. I'm keeping guard tonight and I don't want to see you outside the base."

Arty quickly lowered her cannon and drove past him. She had to think about Fang's words again. The others would give them an alibi. What better way was there than letting one of them be the guard?

' _No …_ ' she thought. Eject wasn't like that. He wouldn't help with the murder of a team mate. She refused to believe that he was a bad guy. Maybe she should turn around and just tell him what she knew? But then again, did she _really_ know what the heavy tank was capable of? She hesitated, and then discarded the idea of asking him for help.

Reaching the populated part of the base eventually, she was received by Sky. The Pershing tilted her cannon with a chiding expression.

"Where have you been?" Sky asked.

Arty just mumbled a soft "Sorry". She couldn't even look at the other tank right now.

Sky seemed suspicious, but instead of asking for further explanations, she spoke into her radio.

"Eject, are we complete?"

She was quiet for a moment, then nodded to herself.

"Good," she said, then turned to Arty again. "Come on, let's get some sleep. I really can't wait for this fucking day to end already."

Arty nodded enthusiastically. She hoped that as long as she didn't leave Sky's side, their leader would be safe. Which left one more team mate to worry about, however.

Driving along next to each other, they quickly reached a little group of tanks that were in different stages of going to sleep. Arty greeted back as Awol waved his cannon at her, but then she sheepishly squinted at Sky.

"And … Goggles is …?" the Sturmpanzer asked, trailing off.

Sky blinked at her.

"Sleeping by herself, … like she always is," she replied.

Arty averted her gaze again, hiding a pained expression. She tried to think of something to say, which took her a moment.

"You know, I was thinking," she then said, "Isn't it kinda unfair that we're excluding her like that? I mean, isn't it … dangerous for her?" She forced herself to stop right there before she could give away anything she definitely shouldn't give away. Sky made a confused "Hm?", prompting Arty to go on anyway. "Just … I think it would be better if we could keep an eye on her," she said quickly.

Sky shook her cannon and got ready to sleep as well.

"If some enemies show up, she'll just fly away. What's with the sudden concern for her wellbeing?" she asked. Her expression turned almost grim. "I would be more worried about us."

Arty thought she knew what the other tank meant, but then Sky went on, her voice only barely above a whisper.

"We're more dangerous to each other right now than any enemy."

' _You have no idea,_ ' Arty cried inwardly. She remained silent.

"Anyway," Sky then said, "Sleep well."

"You too …" Arty replied, but knew that she definitely wouldn't.

###

The clouds that were hiding the moon parted for a moment, allowing its light to shine through. Rill looked at it for a moment. It had barely risen above the mountain tops yet, but it was late enough for his intentions. By now, everyone who should be asleep most likely was asleep. The heavy tank slowly set himself into motion, leaving his secluded position. He was purposefully heading for the spot that Fang and the Ferdinand, Tate, had claimed.

Upon noticing Rill approaching them, they looked up. Only Tate's expression showed mild confusion.

"Come with me," Rill said to Fang as soon as he reached them.

"Why?" Tate asked immediately.

"Sky's orders," Rill said gruffly. He nodded his cannon to the side. "Now come on."

Tate frowned warily.

"Where are you taking him?" he asked.

The KV-4 gave him a cool glance.

"That's none of your business," he replied.

Fang turned towards his brother, raising his cannon placatingly.

"It's fine, Tate. Let's not make a scene," he said. Tate looked surprised, although Rill could only assume about what.

"… Fine," the Ferdinand said eventually.

Fang rolled forward and Rill turned around to lead him away. They drove towards the centre of the base until Tate was out of sight, then changed direction to travel along the border instead of actually driving to where Sky was. Passing the houses and a silent Eject, Rill eventually halted. Fang simply drove on and left the base alone to take his position; he had agreed upon a location with Jack, who would lead the oblivious Goggles there. Rill looked after him for a moment, then turned back to return to his spot.

As he went back to dozing, he mused that it was quite convenient that he wouldn't have to get his own tracks dirty.

###

Jack was nervous, to say the least. His cannon darted from one side to the other as he snuck out of the base, steering clear of the spot where his team mates were sleeping. No one had noticed that he hadn't gone to sleep, as he didn't sleep in the same place as Sky's clique. Despite his efforts to make friends with them, he was somewhat of an outsider. Only the other tank destroyers were really paying attention to him, even if that night it seemed to him like this attention came at a quite high price.

As he had almost reached the base's border, the silhouette of his team's Stuka was already looming ahead. He got closer and heard quiet music, something that sounded like a love song. It was turned off the moment she noticed him. Her ailerons twitched before she lowered them, giving her a defensive appearance. She didn't seem happy about having a visitor, but didn't say anything yet.

Stopping at a respectful distance, Jack decided to skip the small talk and get to the point straight away. He felt bad already, no need to make himself feel worse by dragging this out.

"Sky said you need to move to a different spot," he said, trying to sound as casual as possible.

Goggles just stared at him - or maybe she was actually showing some sort of expression, but she was a plane - for a good ten seconds before she replied.

"She did?" she asked, her voice sounding distrustful.

Jack nodded quickly.

"You are too visible here. I'll show you a spot where you can hide better."

He had been told beforehand what to say to her, words that had been carefully chosen by the heavy tanks that were the masterminds behind this whole plan. And it seemed like it was working.

"Lead the way, then," Goggles said with a shrug.

Jack started driving towards the farm that was visible in the distance. He went slowly enough for Goggles to be able to keep up. They reached the houses just outside the base as well, and drove alongside them. Jack nodded his cannon at Eject as they passed him. Goggles didn't seem to acknowledge the T29's presence at all, just driving on silently.

There was a sudden doubt on Jack's mind, and he looked back at Eject for a moment, then sent him a nonverbal message.

" _Aren't they going to hear the shot?_ " he asked. But it seemed like the heavies had thought of everything indeed.

" _I'll be faking a shot at the same time,"_ Eject replied. " _It will cover up the noise, and I'll just tell them I was startled by an animal."_

Jack lowered his gaze to the ground for a moment. He couldn't help but be impressed in a morbid way by the amount of calculation that had gone into this plan.

The silence between him and Goggles seemed heavy to him as they rolled towards the farm at an excruciatingly slow pace, but he didn't know what to say.

He was glad when the drive was finally over. They reached the farm and drove up to a barn. Jack stopped in front of it, turning around to face Goggles. The Stuka was looking at the barn's doors.

"I'm not gonna fit in there, genius," she said sourly.

"That's unfortunate …" a voice suddenly said from behind Jack.

One of the doors was pushed open and Fang appeared from inside the building. Jack could see the other tank destroyer's cynical grin in his peripheral vision. Goggles didn't move, but her propeller blades twitched as the sound of a shell being loaded could be heard.

"Any last words, wing-scum?" Fang asked.

Goggles backed up ever so slightly, remaining silent. It was probably dawning on her that her end was imminent.

She began to say something, but before she could even finish the first word, Fang fired. The high explosive shell detonated on impact, the explosion swallowing the Stuka's whole fuselage and tearing it to shreds, the little glass shards from the cockpit pelting down on the two tank destroyers like hail. Jack kept his optics shut tightly and only opened them again as the deafening bang had made way for a quiet sizzle. He looked at what little was left of his team mate, splattered across the surrounding area. Then he turned to Fang.

"Bummer. I wanted to know what she was gonna say …" he pouted.

"I had already started counting down," Fang replied with a shrug.


	10. Tilt

The first rays of sunlight announced that the bad weather was finally gone. Arty squinted into the rising sun, already awake at this for her unusually early hour. She threw a look to her side, where Sky was parked next to her. The Pershing returned the look. It could be assumed that she wasn't having an easy time sleeping either, if for different reasons. Arty herself wouldn't even have wanted to be a leader if she had been offered the opportunity - there was so much to worry about and so many tough decisions to make. Making enemies was easy. One had to do what was best for the team, but the opinions what was best and how it should be achieved were diverse. The difficult part about it was pleasing everyone, or at least enough people to keep the majority satisfied, which often meant disgruntling the rest.

It was a fine line to walk, even for the most experienced leaders. The most convenient course of action was to conform to the popular opinions. That was what most leaders did, but Sky wasn't like most.

The Pershing wasn't someone who was content with the way things were. She had new ideas, visions. Some of them maybe idealist, but others possibly revolutionary. Her views were unorthodox; she was thinking outside the box and challenging the status quo. Unlike most, she didn't simply accept the way things were as a given. She was actively working towards change, for what she strongly believed was right. She was fighting the good fight - the problem with that was that she was fighting it alone.

Tanks, by default, were comfortable living by the principle of "don't fix it if it's not broken". They stuck to doing things the way they had always done them, that had worked for them in the past. In a world where innovation could kill you, most preferred to solve challenges in the well-tried way, not questioning if there would be a different, maybe even better approach. Arty was no different. The belief that change could upset the fragile balance of how her world worked was rooted deep inside her mind … but not deep enough to not be curious about these new perspectives Sky had to offer. Arty hadn't been around for a long time, however. The team mates who had lived and fought for many years weren't nearly as open-minded.

And if conspiring to kill a team mate - maybe even the leader herself - wasn't a certain sign of them rejecting Sky's way of leading, Arty didn't know what was.

Her train of thought was interrupted as Sky spoke.

"Breakfast?" the Pershing asked. Her voice sounded as careworn as it did most of the time lately. Arty nodded quickly, still trying not to give away any hints of what was going through her mind. The two tanks decided not to wake up Awol yet and made their way to the spot where they kept the team's fuel.

Eject was there, tending to his own fuel tank. He looked at the newcomers silently as they approached. Him being awake wasn't surprising. Arty assumed that he would go rest as soon as he finished his fuel can; after all he had been on guard all night.

Sky just went ahead and grabbed a fuel can. Arty did the same. They just sat there in silence as no one said anything. Arty just went ahead and guessed that Sky was still mad at the T29 after what had happened the day before, even if she didn't show it in an obvious way right then. But giving him the silent treatment was also a way.

Eject eventually finished refueling and turned to leave, still without a word.

Before Sky and Arty finished theirs, Eohelm - who had taken over as the guard - reported on the team's shared radio channel.

«Someone's approaching the base,» he said. «Single tank, from south-west.»

«That would be me,» Pepper responded and everyone who had been woken up by Eohelm's transmission went back to sleep. Sky set herself into motion to receive the Leopard. Arty figured that she had nothing better to do and followed her team mate to the border of the base.

Before they could reach it however, Sky suddenly stopped. Arty watched her with a puzzled expression as her turret traversed from side to side.

"What's wrong …?" the Sturmpanzer asked, having a sudden sense of foreboding.

"Where is she?" Sky asked. She started driving into one direction, but then stopped and turned, rolled into a different direction, only to stop again.

"... who?" Arty asked, but she knew well. She dropped her gaze, felt a shiver run through her hull.

" _Where is Goggles?!_ " Sky shouted.

###

The whole Tanking League had been woken up and gathered in the centre of the base. The tanks were forming a half-circle, with Sky standing before them. She had told them to meet after a collective effort to search the base for the plane had failed. Now, an attempt was made to explain how she had gone missing.

"She probably ran away after all," Fox said, scrunching up his cannon.

"For good, this time," Rill added with a nod.

Sky stared at the two heavies. Arty felt like there was rage radiating from the Pershing's body.

"Are you sure that you didn't have a part in that? _Again?_ " Sky asked them.

"Are you accusing us of disobeying your orders?" Rill replied calmly.

"Well, wouldn't be the first time!" Sky snapped. As Rill didn't respond this time, she went on. "Eject," she said, her voice low with anger as she turned to the T29, "Wasn't it your job to keep an eye on the base and its surroundings?"

"I didn't notice anyone leaving," Eject rumbled.

"You didn't notice a _plane_ sneaking past you?"

"My optics can't be everywhere at once."

Sky's furious gaze darted around, as if she wasn't sure who to blame next. Arty couldn't help but flinch as it grazed her. She couldn't help but have the paranoid fear that somehow, Sky could see it on the Sturmpanzer's features that she was guilty as well. But her leader didn't even seem to be anticipating how much worse the reality was compared to what she suspected had happened - how guilty Arty _really_ was. There was no doubt now who had been the target of the conspiracy. The SPG felt a strong need to just blurt out what she knew, to just spill the secret so her conscience would be at peace. But she didn't even know how many shells would be flying her way if she did that. The only ones she could tell on were Fang and Jack, as she still didn't know who else had been involved.

She threw secret looks at the heavies; their impassive expressions were like walls that Sky's wrath could barely scratch. Towering to each side of the Sturmpanzer, their massive hulls and cannons reminded Arty that their leader's power over them was an illusion.

Maybe it was best for the Pershing if she was left oblivious of the true extent of the way in which she had been betrayed.

"If I fucking find out that any of you made her leave," Sky eventually growled, "so help me God I will kick you out."

She glared at everyone for a while longer, then went on with a quieter, wearier voice.

"You're dismissed," she said. "Except for Crowley and Pepper."

Arty didn't hesitate and drove off as the tanks scattered. She had to halt abruptly as Rex almost ran her over. He was racing off in a way that he usually only did when he was upset. The VK had been strangely quiet during the discussion. Normally, he always had sentiments to add. Arty looked after him. Maybe he had his own suspicions what had happened and who was involved. Maybe he didn't even want to think it.

###

Crowley left the base. Sky had told him to go on patrol, and that was what he was doing. He drove along slowly, watching his surroundings closely. But his mind was quite absent. He couldn't stop thinking about the heavies' words during the previous discussion.

' _For good this time,_ ' Rill's words replayed in his mind. For an assumption, they had sounded very confident. After what Sky had told the Jumbo had happened the day before, it wasn't unlikely that Rill was one of the tanks who were to blame for Goggles' nightly disappearance. It was crystal clear to Crowley as it was to Sky that the plane hadn't left out of her own volition. The heavies had made themselves the suspects with the way they had acted and continued to act. But no one could prove that they had done it. And kicking them all based on a suspicion … would have been lunacy. But then again - even if their guilt was proven, how else should they be punished?

Crowley's gaze wandered back to the base with a frown, where the sun was just rising above the hilltops. He could see the shapes of some of his team mates that were scattered across the hills, but it was impossible to make out who was who. The Jumbo wondered where it all had started going wrong somehow, where it would lead, and if it could even be fixed before a real crisis happened. It wasn't up to him to fix it, or the heavies, or anyone else except Sky. But could she really do it, or was this team fractured beyond repair?

Turning his optics back to the area around him, he spotted a little farm a short way off; he hadn't seen it before since they had arrived here. It was quite overgrown with all kinds of vegetation, which made it hard to distinguish it from the natural surroundings. Crowley approached it, feeling like it could maybe conceal something useful. As he got closer, he noticed that a part of the ground before a barn looked burnt. There was strange looking debris of sorts in the middle of it. Upon reaching it, Crowley finally recognized the wreckage.

His optics widened for a moment, but then his frown returned. He turned to his radio, contacting Sky privately.

"Sky. Bad news ... You gotta see this."

###

Sky stood before the wreck. It was undoubtedly Goggles. What was left of the wings clearly showed the yellow stripes that the Stuka's paint had featured.

"I don't get it," Crowley - who stood next to her - said. "How did no one hear it? That must have been one hell of a bang!"

"I don't know," Sky replied quietly. Her gaze slowly sank to the ground. "I never thought …" She trailed off.

"Maybe an enemy -" Crowley suggested, but Sky interrupted him.

"This wasn't an enemy attack," she said. "She was _murdered_ by one of us."

The Jumbo looked at her, but she had already turned around and raced off. Crowley hurried after her, but she didn't pay attention to him as he asked her what she was going to do. Her grim gaze scanned the hills in front of her, where some of her team mates had gathered to look at the approaching tanks curiously. They drove aside hastily as she reached them and drove right into their midst. Her turret spun from one side to the other as she threw glares at the others.

"Goggles is _dead!_ " she shouted, loud enough for the whole camp to hear her, "I know it was one of you, so own the fuck up to it!"

She set herself into motion again, driving towards the centre of the base now.

" _I demand to know who killed her!_ "

The Tanking League started gathering around her. The tank destroyers and the heavies, Arty and Awol, Eohelm, and the Shermans formed a circle around their leader. Only Pepper was absent, since he had gone on another scouting run. Looks were shared, the expressions ranging from confused to shocked.

"Who?! Who did it?!" Sky said with a snarl. "Who's the coward?!" Her glare wandered quickly; if looks could kill, everyone it graced would have dropped dead. As it fell on Arty for a moment, the SPG started wobbling on her tracks. Sky's gaze lingered, and Arty seemed to shrink under it, then she suddenly spoke up.

"I …" she said. Sky's optics grew wide. But before she could fully process the impact of what she thought her team mate was trying to say, Arty went on.

"I know who."

That raised so many questions that Sky didn't know which one to ask first. Arty's expression was one that begged for forgiveness.

"I couldn't tell you, I was afraid …!" she said with a shaky voice.

Crowley suddenly barged in.

"Don't beat around the bush! Tell us already!"

Arty looked at him, then she dropped her gaze to the ground.

"It was … Jack. He did it."

The AT-2 gaped at her for a moment, then his cannon started darting from side to side.

"What - I - I didn't -" he gasped, throwing fearful looks at everyone. Before anyone else could speak, he blurted out, "I didn't kill her! F-Fang did it! I just … helped!"

All gazes immediately turned to Fang. The Jagdpanther looked baffled at first, but then his expression turned dismissive.

"That's right," he said. "It was me."

Sky stared at him, speechless at the unexpected confession. But then again, was it really such a surprise? He had never been one of the good guys. The Ferdinand by Fang's side turned to his brother as well, but instead of shocked, he just looked concerned. Sky recovered and didn't even let him get a word in.

" _Get the fuck out,_ " she growled.

"Fine," Fang said with a shrug. "But if you kick me, you'll also have to kick someone else."

Sky's anger made way for confusion for a short moment.

"What?" she asked.

Fang sneered.

"It was the KV-4's idea," he said calmly. "He told us to do it."

"That is correct," Rill said without hesitation.

Sky didn't look at him, instead her gaze became unfocused. The other tanks were silent.

"Anyone else? Was anyone _not_ involved?" she asked, her voice trembling.

There were a few more moments of silence, then Eject spoke up.

"I was part of the plan as well," he said.

That finally caused Rex to be the first one to shake off the daze.

" _Traitors!_ " he shouted.

"Scheming teamkiller filth …" Crowley added.

" _Silence!_ " Sky yelled.

She turned to look at Rill and Eject after all. She hadn't expected Eject of all people to betray her too, but maybe she just hadn't seen the signs. Her expression was dark with disappointment and hurt as she glared at her team mates.

"Kicked. You're _kicked,_ " she hissed. "Leave and _never_ come back."

Fang shrugged again and turned around to drive off. Tate and Jack followed him. Sky looked after them for a moment, then her gaze darted back to the heavies, who returned it with stoic expressions. They didn't show any signs of intending to follow her order.

"What are you waiting for?!" Sky barked at them. "Fuck off!"

Eject and Rill looked at each other, then back at Sky.

"No," Rill said simply.


	11. Regicide

_[ I'M SO SORRY I CAN'T BELIEVE IT TOOK ME THREE MONTHS TO UPDATE... In my defence I was really busy with things and this chapter was hard as hell to write, but other than that there's really no excuse for leaving you guys with such a cliffhanger... Well, here it is. The new chapter. It's pretty long to make up for the long wait. It's also a big plot twist from what I've read in the comments. Enjoy! c: ]_

"I said, 'No'," Rill repeated.

"What?" Sky asked, blinking. The moment of confusion went by, and her wrath returned. "That was an order!" she said.

"So what?" Rill asked.

Sky seemed to interpret his obvious defiance as a lack of understanding. She pointed her cannon at the KV-4. Rex and Crowley followed suit immediately, both of them apparently forgetting or ignoring that it was an empty threat in their respective cases.

"I kicked you," Sky explained, with a sense of angry patience. "You're no longer part of my team. Leave or we'll make you leave."

An icy glare accompanied her words, spoken in a collected tone of voice. She was displaying the confidence that was expected of her in this situation, but Rill had the feeling that it was just a front. He didn't return her gesture and instead looked around, making sure one last time that what he was about to do would not backfire horribly.

The low tier artillery had no power in this situation, and they most likely knew it well. While Awol was staring at Sky anxiously, Arty's gaze was darting from one heavy to the next. The SPGs were scared.

Barfly seemed to be trying to hold his brother back, whispering to the Jumbo imploringly. Rill knew Barfly as a cheeky but ultimately diplomatic tank, someone who would avoid in-fighting if he could. Crowley was different, but he was apparently all bark and no bite, because Rill wasn't noticing any shells bouncing off his front yet. Or maybe, behind the belligerent attitude, Crowley too was scared.

Now some would have argued that fear is not a good basis for getting someone to support you. Respect is. But fear - in Rill's opinion - is just as powerful, and to him, the difference between the two was miniscule anyway. He didn't need their respect as long as he had their fear. In this case, it was enough because someone else had neither respect nor fear; that someone was a certain Pershing whose supporters had become very few.

There was Eohelm, but even he had averted his optics. He had always been fond of Sky, trying to help her wherever he could for the good of the team. But he wasn't unreasonable, and he must have realized by now that by doing this, he ironically was hurting his own cause.

Eject was on Rill's side of course. It wasn't like they had made any elaborate plans of overthrowing Sky's leadership, but Rill knew for sure and without the need for talking that now that the opportunity had come, the T29 would not disappoint.

It was hard to tell with Fox; the King Tiger was the wildcard. He had expressed his discontent with the state of the team, and from what Rill understood, unlike Rex he never had chosen Sky as his leader — but he was a wary tank who was unapproachable to Rill. It was hard to predict whose side he was really on. Especially since he and Rex were friends, and Rill wasn't sure if Fox would do something that would potentially end that friendship. For all intents and purposes, it would already be sufficient if he chose to stay neutral, however.

Satisfied with what he was seeing, Rill eventually looked at Sky again.

"We?" he said calmly.

Sky gave him an uncomprehending stare.

"Who is we?" Rill asked.

Sky's turret twitched to the side as she subconsciously threw a quick look around as well. Why weren't the others doing anything indeed? There was the only just noticeable way her tracks tensed up - was she suddenly missing the instinctive comfort of being surrounded by allies? Beyond her resolute demeanor, it was this subtle thing that betrayed a certain anxiety taking hold of her. She started fumbling for words.

"Well, uh —"

Rill rolled closer to her, and she didn't manage to stop herself from backing up.

"A scared little tier 3 artillery?" Rill asked.

Awol flinched and looked at the ground. Rill went on.

"A guy with a broken gun?"

There was an angry "Shut up!" from Rex, but Rill ignored it.

"Or maybe two Shermans? … Or rather, none, I think."

Crowley's cannon sank in defeat, while Barfly averted his gaze.

Rill tilted his cannon, giving Sky a friendly, yet patronizing look.

"Come on Sky, just admit it. You're leading a team that doesn't want to be led by you. You may have a handful of supporters left, but they are the minority. And I think I am speaking for the majority, when I say, …"

He rolled even closer, even though this time Sky didn't back up further — mostly because she was almost bumping into Fox already.

"… we won't be taking orders from you any longer. You are unfit for being our leader."

Everyone looked at Sky now, who stared at Rill like she was seeing a ghost. Her gaze darted to Eject as the T29 spoke up.

"Consider your leadership revoked," he said, making it clear beyond any doubt what Rill was getting at.

"What?! You … can't do that!" Sky shouted, her turret turning from side to side as she looked at everyone.

"Arty!" she gasped, staring at the Sturmpanzer. But Arty didn't reply, just looked at her with an aghast expression. Sky turned to the next tank she could think of.

"Eohelm?!"

The Centurion returned her gaze with an apologetic expression, but he shook his turret.

"I'm sorry, Sky. It's the best for the team," he said gently.

Sky gaped at him. Her turret traversed around all the way until she was looking at Fox, whose expression was still distant. He didn't say anything, but the message was clear. Sky looked at Rill and Eject again, her distress now obvious.

"You can't fucking do this!" she shouted. "You can't just … just …"

"It's your team's decision. Accept it or leave," Rill said firmly.

Sky stared at him for a moment longer, but then she seemed to crumble away. She sank low on her suspension, her cannon drooping. There was something like a brief flash of defiance, refusal to give in, but it petered out almost immediately.

"I see," she said dryly.

She looked at Awol, who nodded meekly. Then, she turned around, and drove off slowly, past the silent others. Her brother followed her without looking at anyone.

Only when she was gone, it seemed to slowly sink in what had just happened and what it meant. Crowley suddenly let out a frustrated growl and spun around to storm off into the direction Sky had gone. Barfly stared after him with surprise, shouting "Wait!" and shuffling on his tracks as he was obviously unsure what to do about his brother's departure.

"He'll come back," the Easy Eight said hastily, giving the others somewhat apologetic looks. He stayed where he was, but assumably started trying to persuade the other Sherman to return over the radio. For a moment, it looked like Rex was about to follow Sky as well; he turned around halfway, but then looked at Fox, who didn't move or return the look. Rex stayed as he was, only turning his turret back towards the others with an utterly unsettled expression. Rill was intrigued by the VK's inner conflict. He was probably Sky's most zealous follower, and if it hadn't been for his broken cannon, most likely would have shot someone out of confusion already. Despite his high tier, he was young and — though skilled — still inexperienced. He was lost, looking for guidance from someone who was confident in this unclear situation. That someone certainly wasn't Rill — not yet — but instead, in this case, it seemed to be Fox; whose agenda, if he had any, appeared to coincide with Rill's.

Rill was still looking at Rex when someone spoke up. The KV-4 turned to look at Fox. His voice and expression conveyed something that came across as aloof, almost annoyed.

"So what now? Who's the leader now?" he asked. Rill knew that his only chance had come, and he chose his words wisely to appeal to as many of the present tanks as possible.

"Basically, I think no one should be. A team should consist of equals," he explained, looking at Fox directly for a moment before speaking to the general crowd again. "But asking for everyone's opinions first when decisions need to be made quickly would be impractical. Imagine we were in a battle and we disagreed. Therefore we need someone who can make these decisions when needed. Someone who knows what the rest of the team wants and can act accordingly, without delay."

"That makes sense," Eohelm said with a nod. His team mates — except for Rex, who remained quiet — agreed. A brief silence ensued as everyone was looking at each other, thinking the same thing.

"But who would that someone be?" Arty eventually asked, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"Me," Rill said plainly. Before anyone could question that, he added, "I am the oldest and most experienced tank of this team. But I understand your concerns. We saw what happens when one tank has all the power. Therefore I propose that Eject will be the second leader."

Eject blinked; he obviously hadn't anticipated this development.

"You mean, a second-in-command?" the T29 asked.

"No," Rill replied. "I mean that we will both be leaders."

Eject remained silent for a moment, then nodded. He turned to the others.

"Does anyone disagree with this? Speak up now," he said.

No one said anything, not even Rex, and therefore it was decided. Rill and Eject were the new leaders of the Tanking League.

###

Sky didn't look back as her tracks carried her away from the base and the others. She wasn't hurrying. She had nowhere to go. Awol had been quiet for the last minutes, just driving after her with his cannon lowered. They drove on for a while longer, but then Sky noticed something in the distance to her left. Something was moving into the direction they came from, far away. Sky tensed up, but then realized that even if this something was an enemy tank going for their base, it didn't concern her anymore. She turned her gaze away as it didn't seem like the unknown threat had noticed her and Awol.

However, from her peripheral vision, she suddenly noticed the movement approaching them. She loaded a shell and told Awol to take a look. The SPG switched to his artillery sights, but after a moment turned back to Sky.

"It's Pepper," he said.

Almost at the same time, Sky received a radio transmission.

«... Sky? We are you going? Are we leaving?»

Sky didn't reply and just drove on silently. Moments later, Pepper appeared at her side, braking sharply after his short sprint. Sky halted, but only looked at the Leopard from the corner of her optics. Awol returned the look Pepper was giving him at first, but quickly averted his gaze again.

"Where are the others?" Pepper asked. As he got no response still, he tilted his cannon, and then seemingly got a suspicion what could be going on.

"They really …" he began to say, but trailed off.

"They've made a decision. I have nothing to add," Sky said and set herself into motion again, leaving Pepper standing. He didn't do anything about it; she heard his engine idle for a moment, and then rev as he turned around and continued his way back to the base.

Before the sound of the engine had faded completely, Awol halted again. Sky halted as well and turned around to him with a frown. He spoke up in a subdued voice.

"What are we going to do now?"

Sky's expression grew even darker.

"I don't know," she said truthfully.

"How are we going to get fuel? What if someone just —"

Sky interrupted him sharply.

" I said, I don't know!" she snapped.

Awol flinched, looking at her with a shocked expression.

"You don't have to yell at me," he said.

Sky closed her optics for a moment and sighed deeply.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know. I really don't."

###

"What the hell was that?!"

Fox stopped and turned towards the source of the angry voice. The words were shouted in German, so it could only be one tank, and that tank had to be very mad. Rex was approaching him with a wild glare.

"What the hell happened there?!" he barked.

Fox just let the other heavy come towards him, returning the glare with an impassive look. As soon as Rex reached him, the King Tiger replied, in German as well.

"I don't know what you mean," he said coolly, despite knowing very well. This confrontation had been bound to happen, but that didn't mean that Fox was ready for it. He had known that Rex would explode once he managed to sort out his thoughts after all those confusing events. And he had also known that he would be the first target of the VK's wrath, if only for the lack of any other targets.

"Why didn't you say anything? Why did you let them kick Sky out?!" Rex went on.

It was odd to be the one to experience his anger first-hand for once. Rex got angry a lot at many things, and sometimes didn't have qualms about confronting other tanks about it. Sometimes that resulted in him and Fox arguing, but it was never serious arguments, only banter. Rex had never been furious when addressing his friend. It seemed like this time, things were different.

"I had my reasons," Fox said. Of course, Rex didn't take that as an answer.

"What reasons?" the VK snapped. "I want to hear those, and they better be damn good reasons!"

Fox couldn't help but get irritated as well. He didn't have to let someone talk to him in that tone. No matter who it was.

"Maybe if you looked past your obsession with that Pershing for once, you would see that she wasn't suitable for leading a high tier team," he said in a low, but firm tone. "How many more dead team mates and defeats would it have taken for you to realize that?"

Rex' stance got defensive and he struggled for words, but before he could really reply, Fox went on already.

"Look, I don't have anything against her personally. I never did. But I don't feel like dying for her. Her ideas of leading a team were admirable in theory, but in practice she was killing people."

Rex wanted to object again, but again Fox didn't let him talk, which resulted in the King Tiger having to shout over Rex' words of protest.

"We were heading towards our demise at full throttle. Stopping her was the only way to avoid the crash. If I had realized that sooner, I would have advocated for kicking her long before she ran the team into the ground like she did," he said assertively. Rex had stopped trying to drown out the other's voice with his own and was just glaring now.

"Besides, you didn't say anything either when we told her to leave," Fox concluded.

"But I didn't agree!" Rex growled, finally able to get a word in. "I don't want Rill or Eject to be my leaders! I won't accept it! My leader is Sky."

It was really remarkable and incredibly irritating at the same time to Fox how blindly stubborn the other heavy was. How blindly loyal to someone who would most likely have been his own death in the end.

"Then why didn't you follow her when she left? Or, just run after her now. I'm sure it's not too late to catch up with her yet," Fox burst out, his voice now full of biting sarcasm.

Rex fell silent, trembling on his suspension with held back anger. When he finally replied, his voice sounded genuinely hurt.

"Would you come with me?" he asked. Fox didn't say anything in return. The other heavy understood the silence's meaning. "I thought we were going to stick together no matter what! I thought we weren't going to let anything or anyone change that!" he said. "And now you're telling me to leave and saying you wouldn't care if I did?"

Fox stared off to the side with a deep frown. Rex' voice got lower but all the more aggrieved as he said one more thing before falling quiet.

"I thought we were friends ."

A heavy silence spread between the two tanks. After a few moments, Fox turned around and drove off without another word.

###

Watching the scene silently, Rill and Eject were standing next to each other not far away. It had been hard to miss the yelling that had started shortly after the tanks had disbanded their meeting. Rill didn't understand what kind of insults they were apparently hurling at each other, but as the German heavies fell silent finally, it didn't look like they had come to an agreement.

"I'll keep an optic on that," Eject said matter-of-factly.

"As long as they don't end up interfering with each other during battles, let them argue," Rill replied with a shrug. Privately, he was more concerned than he let on. Fox had always been a good influence on Rex, and it was hard to predict into which direction the VK would develop when that influence was taken away. The last thing Rill needed was an incalculable tier 9.

"What about the low tiers? Assuming the Jumbo will come back," Eject asked, picking up the conversation again that they had paused to watch the argument. Rill's gaze wandered to the part of the base where they kept their fuel. Barfly was having a late breakfast there. Rill tuned in to the Sherman's private frequency.

"Where is your brother?" he asked Barfly.

«He's … out of range now,» Barfly replied. He sounded affected, to say the least. «Can I -» he began to ask, but Rill didn't let him finish the sentence. Barfly had asked the same question twice already. Each time the answer had been the same.

"No," Rill said. "You're staying."

It seemed like this time, Eject had an idea. He was listening to the radio conversation and turned to Rill.

"We could send Pepper for him. He'll find him in no time for sure," he suggested.

"I don't know if that's necessary. He might be on his way back to here already. He wouldn't abandon his brother, not even for the Pershing," Rill said.

"If he really managed to persuade her, he might have Sky in tow …" Eject added for consideration.

"Then so be it," Rill said. "We'll think about that when it happens. In any case, I think they can stay for now. We'll upgrade or replace them as soon as possible."

Eject's engine rumbled in agreement. Then, he seemed to think of something. He tilted his antennas as he looked at the heavy by his side.

"That's the Shermans. What about Arty?"

Rill knew that Eject had something like a soft spot for the SPG. Rill himself would have kicked her already, since to him, she was just another low tier. Another burden. But he knew better than to antagonize his new co-leader like that.

"I didn't forget about her," the KV-4 said calmly. "If we can get her to tier 7 at least, …"

"Tier 7?" Eject interrupted him. "She isn't ready."

"She will be. You'll just have to train her more frequently again," Rill said dismissively.

"It won't work. I'm not able to do that," Eject replied in a stubborn tone.

Rill raised an optic ridge.

"She's not a poor learner. And since it's not that … You were an SPG yourself, so where's the trouble?" he asked.

Eject didn't show any signs of being surprised at the revelation of Rill's knowledge, except for his voice turning wary.

"… How do you know?"

"It is obvious, really. Only an SPG can teach another SPG like that."

Eject was quiet for a moment, his engine emitting a discontent grumble. At first it seemed like he was done with the conversation, but then he replied anyway.

"I never made it that far, before …"

He fell silent again, looked off to the side. Rill didn't bother with feigning sympathy and waited patiently until Eject's gaze rested on him again before he went on.

"Can you do it or not?" he asked flatly, not interested in the other heavy's hemming and hawing. As he didn't receive a reply at all, he added, "With her current tier, she can't stay in the team. We'll have to kick her if —"

"No need. I'll do it," Eject said, his voice grumpy now.

Rill nodded, satisfied with that answer and the newfound leverage.


	12. Amends

The dim light inside the bar was flickering ever so slightly. It wasn't well attended — it never was. Maybe in the past, before the territory it was located in had been conquered. Now, there simply weren't many tanks left to visit it. There was in fact only one guest at the moment; the Jagdpanther was brooding over a can of high octane fuel at the counter. His prominent white camouflage paint had seen better days - the rest of him as well. On top of the chipped and patchy paint, remains of what used to be a pale red clan emblem were visible. It had been painted over with a certain blood red symbol. A worn-out camo net — which at this point only served a sentimental purpose anymore — clung to his flanks.

There was quiet swing music coming from a stuttering jukebox, which was the only noise inside the cramped room beside the scraping of tables against the ground. The barkeeper had started moving them around after she had given up on trying to involve her guest — who was silent as a grave — in a conversation. She had already broken two of the tables in the process. In her defence, they were in a similar condition as her guest. Not that it mattered much. Even the reduced number of tables would not be completely occupied anytime soon.

The bar's gate suddenly opened, and the bright daylight coming from outside made the Jagdpanther squint with displeasure as he threw an incurious look through his backwards facing optics. Dust was floating through the illuminated air. He could only make out a dark silhouette inside the door frame at first, but as the new guest entered the bar, it turned out to be a FCM 50t. Right after it, a T30 entered as well. Both of them were wearing the same insignia as the Jagdpanther. They must have had come to get lunch. The gate closed behind them. The Jagdpanther focused on his drink again. The two other guests made their way to one of the tables while chatting casually, and the barkeeper immediately drove up to them to ask them what they wanted to drink. As soon as they had ordered, the FCM 50t and the T30 continued their conversation.

They were talking so loudly that it was hard to ignore them. The FCM 50t was telling the T30 about a recent battle that he had fought only a few kilometres south of their current location, and both of them were enjoying the report greatly, judging by their occasional laughter and cheerful voices.

"It was almost too easy, really," the FCM 50t said with a triumphant grin in his voice. "I thought their plane would be a problem, but …" He paused to chuckle. "It just fled right away!"

At the mention of a plane, the Jagdpanther's cannon perked up. He threw another look behind himself. The barkeeper was serving two cans to the guests right then, and they started slurping the fuel immediately.

"Really?" the T30 asked. "Planes, go figure!"

Planes were not a common sight with the free teams. Before he had joined his new clan, the Jagdpanther had only seen very few of them in his whole life. In fact, only two. The first one they had found dead in the mountains. The second one had belonged to a certain team. But could it really be …? He was listening closely now as the FCM 50t went on.

"Not even their Leopard 1 could do anything. The heavies were quite tough, though," he said with a shrug. "That King Tiger's aim was something else. Not to mention the VK, had to take that one out myself. But the strange thing was, they had all these high tiers, but then on the other hand, they had low tiers also."

"Low tiers?" the T30 asked with an audibly raised optic ridge. "Like, tier 7 and such?"

"Nah," the FCM 50t replied. "I mean Shermans, and even a Wespe. A Sturmpanzer also."

"Huh. That's odd," the T30 said.

Now there was no doubt anymore. The team exactly fit the description of the one the Jagdpanther had been looking for. He almost knocked over his fuel can as he spun around hastily and hurried over to the table the two other tanks were parked at. They paused their conversation to look at the stranger who had suddenly approached them.

"Did you kill them?!" the Jagdpanther asked the FCM 50t.

His clan mates stared at him.

"Uh … What?" the addressed tank replied eventually.

"The team you fought! Did you kill them all?!"

The FCM 50t and the T30 shared a brief look. They probably weren't quite sure what to think of this stranger. They probably thought him frantic. They weren't entirely wrong.

"No … They ran away," the FCM 50t said slowly.

"Where to?" the Jagdpanther continued the interrogation.

"Heck if I know —" the FCM 50t replied, and was obviously getting irritated now. He paused with a frown, and went on in an almost hostile tone. "Why do you want to know anyway? Who are you?"

"Doesn't matter," the Jagdpanther said and already turned towards the door. The barkeeper shouted a question after him, asking if he wasn't going to finish his drink, but he didn't pay any attention to it as he stormed out of the bar while the other tanks looked on with bewilderment.

Outside, the Jagdpanther's unit was already waiting for him. They were gathered in a group along the shore of the pond near the building, standing close together despite the abundance of open space between the adjacent former vineyards. Many more tanks had joined them as the other clansmen had ordered them to wait here as well, but the tank destroyer didn't have any trouble distinguishing his tanks from the others. Their lowered cannons raised as he gave them the order to wake up and follow him. He drove ahead of the unit, choosing a southward direction.

The Jagdpanther's engine turned fast with excitement as he accelerated, leaving the slower tanks of his unit behind him for now. They would catch up. It wasn't of any concern to him right then. All he could think about was the showdown that was going to happen as soon as he found the tanks that were responsible for his life taking a turn for the worse. Now that he finally had this hint of their possible whereabouts, he knew where to continue his search. He had a purpose again. No more watching himself rusting away in the reserves. No more merely cleaning up after his new clan mates. No more wasting time in rundown bars.

All of that was now over. After all these months, he would finally hunt again. And he was going to settle this score, once and for all.

###

Being a Sherman Jumbo had its perks. Even if he wasn't invulnerable, Crowley's armour could withstand hits decently, especially the turret. His cannon did the job. But being a Sherman Jumbo also had its downsides. The biggest one at the moment was that — unlike many of his kin — Crowley was slow. Not as slow as many heavy tanks, but also not fast enough to catch up to Sky. Being a Leopard 1 instead for example, that would have been convenient right then. Or even knowing one who could help him with his endeavour. That would have been enough. But the only Leopard 1 wide and far that had passed him by a little while ago had been anything but helpful. The only complaisance had been a vague description of Sky's supposed whereabouts.

Instead of helping him bring Sky back, Pepper had told him to return to the base. In response to Crowley's "Make me", his team mate had only wearily shaken his cannon and raced off. Of course the Leopard wasn't entirely wrong when advising Crowley to go back — this far away from his team mates, the only thing he'd achieve if he ran into someone would probably be being kidnapped or killed.

On top of that, he didn't even know if he was getting closer to Sky at all or if she was going too fast and too far. She wasn't replying to Crowley's attempts of reaching her on the radio, which either meant she was out of range, or that she simply didn't want to. It had led to this bizarre situation where he had started rambling to her through her private radio frequency, with dwindling hope of her ever responding to what he had to say. He had started out by just asking her repeatedly to come back and telling her that he was sure the team would take her back. But as that had had no effect, he had begun to freely speak his mind — saying all the things he hadn't had the chance to tell her in person.

Someone who was more eloquent maybe would have gotten to the point by now, but the Jumbo couldn't even tell if he was making things worse or if his words would eventually convince Sky to at least reply. He just kept talking anyway.

"I'm not gonna lie to you," he went on. "You know I'm not a tank who lies or sugarcoats things. So, I'm gonna be honest with you. I know you probably don't wanna hear this. But I think you know too that it's the truth. They're wrong about a lot of things, but they were right when they said you couldn't lead this team."

He paused thoughtfully, still waiting for any sort of reply. As he should have known however, none came. He continued his monologue, explaining the point he was trying to get across better.

"You're a strong tank. You wouldn't be alive if you weren't. But a leader … Not right now, just the same as I wouldn't be. It's not that they're an ungrateful bunch. It's not that you're a bad person. Maybe you'll even be a leader again one day, but today isn't the day. Neither tomorrow — You know what I mean."

Climbing yet another one of the hills, Crowley stopped to let his optics wander. There was still no sight of anyone; the sun was already rising to its peak. He thought about what his next words could be.

"They were fed up," he eventually said. "I don't think it was entirely your fault. Someone had to put their neck on the line. Someone had to go. Hadn't it been you, it would've been someone else. It's a bad time to be the leader, I think. I mean, you can't tell me you enjoyed the job. I only saw you frown lately.

Maybe the heavies can pull it off. Maybe they'll mess up. Maybe they'll get chased away like you in the end. It's how people are, I guess. You're their hero until you're not."

Crowley's cannon sank. Perhaps his speech really was pointless. If he hadn't managed to change Sky's mind by now — implying she could even hear him — he probably wouldn't even if he tried for hours while driving around aimlessly. He started one last attempt nevertheless.

"See, I think you'll be a great leader if you really want it, one day. But here's the thing. You still gotta learn a lot … a lot of things, and I don't know most of these things either. There's a reason why I'm no leader, after all! But I know one thing. A good leader knows what's best for their team, and sometimes that means passing on the responsibility."

There was still no answer. Crowley sighed.

"Ah … Well," he said quietly. It was time to go back. His brother was probably worried sick for him already, and the thought of his new leaders not being amused by Crowley leaving without permission anyway was only further encouragement to be back as soon as possible. Maybe, if he hurried, his punishment wouldn't be as severe.

Before turning around fully, he threw one last look at the hills ahead, not expecting to see anyone. But he was wrong. He squinted as he noticed something appearing on the horizon. Two silhouettes became visible on one of the hill crests. Crowley immediately loaded his cannon, but didn't shoot yet, which would have revealed his position. Instead, he looked through his sights, trying to identify whatever he was seeing.

As he got a clear view, the tension he had felt for a moment dissipated. He knew these tanks. He knew them well.

"Sky!" he shouted and watched the Pershing's turret turn towards him. The Wespe by her side started waving.

Crowley turned to his radio again.

"You came back," he said, his voice full of relief.

«Looks like it,» Sky replied. Crowley watched his team mates start driving towards him. He cleared his vents before he went on.

"So, I assume you heard everything I said …"

«I did. Thought you'd never stop whining,» Sky said with a smirk in her tone.

Crowley blinked and rose on his tracks indignantly, but in the end couldn't help but smile.

"It's good to have you back," he said.

###

Arty was shaking like a leaf. Her tracks were so tense that she was afraid they'd snap any moment. She could feel her racing engine up to her fuel intake. If she had been able to run, she would have. But that wasn't an option right then. She couldn't do anything but wait, straining to hear anything other than her own engine and staring straight ahead.

'I never should have agreed to this,' she thought frantically.

The hills were blocking her sights, which forced her to use her regular optics. That meant she was basically blind. Normally, this wouldn't be a big problem. There was almost always someone who would spot what she couldn't. And even if that went wrong, and even if no one would come to take care of whoever sneaked past them, good luck seemed to be in her favour always. But not this time. This time, Arty was completely on her own. It made her aware like never before just how dependent on her team she really was.

She inched backwards, further behind the hill she was hiding behind, but knew that once the heavy tank came around the bend, she would still be exposed immediately. She'd have a couple of moments at best before she would be noticed and the other tank would have turned his turret towards her. Or, in the worse case, his cannon would already be pointed at her the moment he appeared, if he had anticipated her position.

'Stay calm,' she silently told herself. 'Remember what Eject told you. Remember, god dammit!'

It achieved nothing. Her mind was blank of any advice. Any moment now, it would happen. The heavy tank would find her. When she had still been able to see him in her artillery sights, she had messed up — had failed to hit him. Not once. Two times. Surely, he had seen the shell tracers.

But instead of anything happening, the minutes passed by. If he was coming for her, why did it take so long? He had been close when he had disappeared from her view. Was he waiting for her to completely lose her nerve? If that was the case, he was doing a very good job.

A sudden thought crossed her mind: What if he'd show up behind her? Was that the reason it took so much time for him to reach her? Because he had to go around the other side of the hill? Arty shuffled on her tracks anxiously, unable to decide which direction she should face. Her aim became unfocused as she threw a hectic look behind her. Turning around halfway, she changed her mind in the next moment and turned back into her original direction.

She looked ahead again.

Her view ports grew wide as something had appeared in her field of view, blocking it completely. For a moment, all she saw was wheels and the lower part of a massive, dark olive hull.

Arty looked up, stared down the cannon barrel of the heavy tank that was suddenly towering before her. Before she could even remember that she possessed a cannon as well that she should have been using right then, the other tank fired.


	13. Back at the Base

Silence had spread across the fields. The TRV had just finished climbing a hill, believing that whatever fighting had been going on was over after she hadn't heard shots for a while. She was wrong.

She blinked at the two tanks, a mere four hundred meters away. Being someone who saw a lot of death on an almost daily basis, it wasn't shocking to her that one of them had just shot the other. What made her freeze was the fact that the survivor's cannon was now pointed at her instead.

It was unlikely that the heavy tank could see her clearly - which in this situation, was a disadvantage. Tanks that weren't sure what they were seeing tended to shoot indiscriminately, in case it was an enemy; denying a hostile tank the first shot was often the key to survival. A team mate would always make sure to radio their comrade to announce their approaching beforehand and avoid accidentally becoming a target. Without that means of communication, approaching a team still was relatively safe for a TRV. A scout would notice and identify her without trouble, long before she'd have even seen it. Catching a heavy tank off guard however was an entirely different matter.

Luckily for the TRV, the other tank was reloading right then. She shook off her surprise and backed up as quickly as she could, pushing the cart behind her backward as well. She managed to disappear from the heavy's line of sight, but knew that it wouldn't just ignore her. However, she - probably - wasn't in grave danger anymore. Tanks _usually_ didn't kill TRVs. And if she just stood here in plain sight, the heavy would not confuse her for a hostile tank once it got close enough to spot her again.

She just waited patiently. As she had expected, a turret appeared from behind the hill crest before her a couple of minutes later. The T29's cannon wasn't pointed at her this time, instead aiming slightly above her as the other tank obviously couldn't depress it as far as it wanted to. But that wasn't necessary right then. It lingered for a moment, then the rest of the tank appeared.

"It's a mechanic," the heavy tank said. He was speaking to someone else, but addressed the TRV next. "Are you alone?" he asked.

"As per usual," the TRV replied. She was always travelling alone, since she couldn't afford guards like some other TRVs. But despite her deadpan attitude, she understood the other tank's concerns. In a tank's mind, _everything_ could be a trap. It was a worry that came true often enough for it to be justified.

The T29's frown deepened for a moment, but then he finally seemed to recognize who was standing before him.

"How did you find us?" he asked, but sounded much less wary now.

The TRV shrugged.

"This is one of the bases I used to frequent. I haven't been here in a long time, but since I'm going south and it's on the way, I figured I'd drop by," she explained. She tilted her whole hull as she went on. "Did I pick an inconvenient time?" Maybe the kill she had seen had concluded the battle that must have been going on. Maybe it hadn't.

Before the other tank could answer, a second tank appeared on the hill ridge. The TRV blinked. It was the tank that the heavy had shot. By all means, the low tier artillery should be dead after taking a hit at point-blank range from a T29. But instead of a shell hole, there was just a big dent on the Sturmpanzer's already beaten up looking gun shields. The TRV recognized her as one of the T29's low tier team mates that she had already seen during her last visits.

"We are training," the T29 said, pretty much at the same time as the answer to the mystery occurred to the TRV. She nodded. It looked like a pretty rough training session, but that was none of her business.

"Do you require my services?" she asked.

"Urgently," the T29 said.

The three tanks started making their way towards the base, driving by each other's side. Eject was driving between Arty and the TRV, who noticed after a moment that he was looking at her, then at her cart with a concerned expression. Clearly, he must have noticed the drastic decrease in spare parts she was carrying. He spoke up a moment later.

"I take it no one's left," he said dryly.

The TRV shrugged.

"Not a single team," she replied. With a shudder, she added, "I only barely managed to slip through myself."

"How can a team be this powerful?" Eject asked.

"Oh, it's not just one team," the TRV said.

"But you said —" Eject said but trailed off as the TRV shook her turret.

"It seems to be a whole clan, or something. I observed them for a while, and it was definitely multiple teams."

Eject's engine rumbled with discontent. The TRV went on.

"They're on their way," she said plainly.

###

Eohelm had been wondering if he was going to be included in the planning that was going on currently. With Sky as the leader, he had always been part of the discussions. Rill and Eject however had only called him just now, despite the fact that they had been putting their turrets together since the takeover, trying to think of solutions for their predicament. The Tanking League was stuck in the middle of nowhere with their fuel slowly running out and no idea where to go next. For two experienced leaders, that situation wasn't too hard to get out of.

But whatever news this TRV had brought must have revealed the problem to be more complicated than they had thought. And apparently that meant the new leaders had decided that a little help from their strategist wouldn't hurt, after all. Therefore, Eohelm was strolling through the base to go join the deliberation. He passed the TRV that had returned with Eject and Arty and was working on his team mates in the middle of the base now — she was trying her best to help despite a very limited supply of spare parts. Eohelm would visit her too after he would have fulfilled his consultant duty. There wasn't any serious damage to be repaired on his part, but he figured it wouldn't hurt (figuratively speaking, at least) to have some of his minor injuries from the last battle looked at.

He eventually reached the secluded spot between the buildings that Rill and Eject had called him to. The heavies turned towards him when they noticed him approaching from their side, and paused their conversation until he had driven up to them.

"You called?" he said as they just looked at him silently.

"Things are worse than they seemed," Eject said straightforwardly.

Before Eohelm could reply anything, Rill spoke up.

"We're not dealing with a team, but an advancing clan," the KV-4 said. "We were thinking about fighting back, but a free team who fights a clan is a stupid team."

"I don't get it," Eject said. "What could a clan want here? These lands are useless as provinces, there's nothing here." He sounded slightly agitated, which was far more agitated than Eohelm had seen him in a long time. A troubling observation. Eohelm lowered his optics, straining to think about the whole issue. If this was indeed the same tanks they had met months ago, he had a suspicion what they could actually be after. And that didn't make it any better.

"They may not be looking for lands …" he said eventually. The confused looks he got prompted him to go on. "Remember the scavenger team in Ruinberg? Remember what they told us when we asked them about the dead tanks in their basement?"

"I wasn't there," Rill said. "Get to the point."

Eject turned to the KV-4, answering instead of Eohelm.

"They said they hid them there, because their fallen comrades were 'converted' by the ghosts. They came back as ghosts themselves," he explained. His expression suddenly turned startled. "The South …" he said. "It must be completely overrun with teams by now."

He fell silent, the shock remaining on his features. Rill was apparently hit by the realization as well and continued the thought.

"If they reach them, and convert them all …" he said slowly. His optics darted to Eohelm, who returned the look with a deeply worried expression.

"When that happens," the Centurion said, "we'll better be _very_ far away."

Eject growled.

"We won't be. We'll be right in the middle of it," he said gravely. He shook his turret. "We _have_ to do something. For my part, I won't just keep running until we're either killed or driven into the sea. Because that's what's going to happen. They won't stop hunting us until they did."

"I fully agree with you," Eohelm said. "But," he went on, "our team in its current shape can't survive another battle, let alone win. It would be different if we were at full strength … But even then … I wouldn't be confident that we can stop a whole clan."

"We might be able to if we find strong allies. We can't be the only ones who want to fight back," Eject argued.

"I wouldn't rely on that," Rill rumbled. "I wonder if we're too far south or if it would still be possibly to evade to the West …"

Eject looked at him with a puzzled frown.

"You think they won't be waiting there too?" he asked.

Rill remained silent for a moment. It seemed like he was going to reply something, but then changed his mind and scrunched up his cannon before turning to Eohelm instead.

"Your help isn't needed anymore right now," he said to the Centurion.

Eohelm blinked at being kicked from the meeting so suddenly and soon, but left with a quick bow.

' _He doesn't know either,_ ' he thought as he left the two heavies behind him. A look back told him that they continued their discussion without him immediately. With a sigh, he drove back into the base, where the TRV was still busy.

She was working on Rex right then, who was being a difficult patient. Eohelm slowed down as he approached the little makeshift workshop that the TRV had set up. Rex was standing in the middle of it and frowning.

"What's broken?" the TRV asked him.

"I don't know," Rex replied, but then waved his cannon about vaguely. "The gun, …"

Eohelm halted nearby, next to Arty, who was waiting for her turn.

"Does it hurt?" the TRV continued her evaluation.

"Yes," Rex said.

"What exactly hurts?"

"I don't know."

There was no obvious damage, at least none that Eohelm could see. If he hadn't been told, he wouldn't have guessed that Rex' cannon was broken. But that only made it harder for the TRV to fix him, because she had to find out what was wrong by interpreting his cryptic answers. Eohelm watched the exchange for a moment longer, but then turned to Arty.

"How was training?" he asked the Sturmpanzer. She gave him a defensive-looking shrug.

"Didn't go so well …" she said.

"Oh?" Eohelm asked. The previous time that Eject had trained Arty had been a while ago, but she had sounded more enthusiastic about it back then. But then again, those previous times she hadn't been punished for failing. Eohelm had been pretty baffled to see her far more damaged than usual when she had returned from the latest session. Training ammo usually wasn't dangerous, but it could leave nasty bruises nevertheless in certain circumstances.

"He said … I panic too much," Arty mumbled with her optics averted. "But I don't know what to do about it …"

"You'll get better at it eventually," Eohelm said.

"If only."

Eohelm wondered about the strange pessimism. Arty wasn't this negative normally. On the other hand, if he hadn't known her, he wouldn't have assumed anything else from her current appearance. While he acknowledged the necessity and urgency of training her, he didn't approve of the way Eject went about it now. The T29 was demanding too much. He seemed to seriously expect that Arty would outperform herself by far very soon, and was obviously willing to force it.

"It's a matter of experience. It takes time," Eohelm thought out loud.

Arty looked at him again with a frown.

"We don't _have_ time," she replied.

"Well," Eohelm said, tilting his cannon. "One thing he sure taught you already is how to sound like him."

There was a sudden outcry, and Eohelm looked to Rex again, whose turret's hatches were open now as the TRV was working inside it. It seemed like she had found the broken parts by poking around.

"It's the recoil mechanism," she said. "Your recoil cylinders ruptured and all the hydraulic fluid got out."

"What? What does that mean?" Rex asked.

"Gun slide barrels broke," the TRV replied deadpan.

Rex frowned indignantly, but then winced again as the TRV pulled a warped piece of metal out of his turret, with a gesture not unlike that of a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat.

Eohelm cringed. As the TRV reached into Rex' turret again — most likely with the intention of pulling another part —, the Centurion decided that he'd come back later. He turned around and drove off, a yelp behind him.

Just as he had settled down to rest, Pepper's voice could be heard on the radios.

«Tanks approaching the base,» he reported. «Three, to be exact.»

«Who?» Eject asked.

«Guess,» Pepper replied.

Eohelm's cannon perked up. He set himself into motion and hurried to the border of the base, strained to see anyone appearing. Beside him, Barfly stopped with screeching brakes after sprinting to the same spot.

«We will receive them,» Eject announced.

Four silhouettes became visible in the distance only a few moments later; Pepper was escorting the newcomers. Eohelm sat down on his suspension and waited next to the jittery Barfly as the silhouettes slowly approached.

The minutes passed in silence, until the four tanks finally reached the base's borders. They drove towards Eohelm and Barfly. None of them said anything as they passed the two medium tanks, but the Jumbo among them left their side to stop next to Barfly. The two Shermans looked at each other silently, then both of them looked after Pepper, Sky, and Awol, who hadn't stopped and were driving further into the camp. Eohelm waited until they had passed him, then followed them.

Arty was still sitting near Rex and the TRV; the TRV had stopped working and the three of them watched wordlessly as the returnees drove past them without looking at them. Eohelm saw Fox appear to their left to watch the procession as well. As he looked ahead again, Pepper was slowing down and halting. Sky and Awol followed suit. Rill and Eject were standing in front of them; the heavies' expressions were stern.

The following seconds passed in silence, until Sky spoke up with a firm, but quiet voice.

"We have returned."

"I can see that," Rill said.

If Sky was irritated by his attitude, she didn't show it. Her tone was unchanged as she went on.

"My brother and I wish to rejoin this team."

"Rill and I are the new leaders," Eject said.

Sky looked at him with an unreadable expression.

"So I've been told," she said matter-of-factly.

"Do you accept this?" Eject asked.

For a moment, Sky remained silent. Eohelm watched her closely, hoping that she would act right. Eject shifted on his tracks a little, his optics wandering to Rill, who kept looking at Sky.

Finally, the Pershing bowed her cannon.

"I accept it," she said.

"In that case," Rill said, "you are allowed to stay."

Sky's gaze remained lowered.

"Thank you."


	14. Into the Unknown

The shadows between the small buildings had started growing as the sun was slowly descending from its peak. As the moments passed, Sky could see them crawl across the hull and turret of the T29 standing before her. He had led her here soon after her return, telling her that they needed to talk — alone. Sky didn't know what he could want to talk about, and she didn't really want to talk about _anything_ with him anyway. As he finally said something, it was clear from his words that he had guessed as much.

"I know that you're angry at me, but your anger is unwarranted," he said.

"Is it now?" Sky asked. "Is it really unwarranted to be angry at someone who conspired to kick me from my own team and took my place after killing a teammate?"

"Understand my reasons for acting the way I did," Eject said. Sky glared at him.

"Kicking me, I'd understand. I know I did a bad job. But you still had a teammate murdered, for fuck's sake," she said, still upset about that fact, and it was obvious in her voice. "You ask me to respect a leader who let hate cloud his judgement. There's nothing for me to understand there."

Eject remained calm at the accusation.

"I may not have been particularly fond of her, but I didn't hate her. It wasn't _hate_ that drove me," he replied. "Starting a witch hunt would be hypocritical of me."

Sky tilted her turret with a frown.

"Then what the hell was it?" she asked.

Eject only looked at her silently for a moment, with an expression that gave away a realization.

"You were clueless, … oblivious, and you still are," he eventually said.

Sky was impatiently waiting for him to get to the point, but didn't interrupt him; even though she wanted to protest.

"Rill knows what he's doing. He knows well," Eject went on. "And I'm not talking about his leadership qualities here."

"Well, what _are_ you talking about?" Sky asked. She couldn't follow at all anymore.

"He didn't decide today to take over. You didn't see the signs. _I_ did. For me, it was a matter of finding out if he'd be suitable, if he'd get things done," Eject explained. "I'll admit it took me a while, but after our last battle, I finally realized what he was trying to do. I had to know if I had to stop him — if he'd do more harm than good as the new leader."

"Why didn't you tell me about it?" Sky's frown deepened. "Don't you think you should have informed me if you found out someone is planning to overthrow me?"

"That would have been unwise. You couldn't have done anything. I could have, but only if I kept him unaware of what I knew. I had to keep playing dumb just in case."

Sky felt like she was starting to understand what he was getting at. But if that was the case …

"You didn't stop him from killing Goggles … You helped him kill her … to test him? Her death was just a test to you? A … a gambit?" she asked with disbelief.

Eject shook his cannon.

"Like I said, it had a purpose beyond that," he said. "He would have found a way to get rid of her, even without my help, he had the others' support. Her fate was sealed, she was the scapegoat, but I realized that there was my only chance, and if I took it, her death wouldn't be in vain, at least."

Sky stared at her teammate blankly. It was simply baffling to her how complicated the whole situation really was. All of that scheming just to become the leader of a group of pariahs? Or was that just the beginning of something bigger? The implications were only beginning to sink in and Sky tried to confirm that her train of thought was on the right track.

"And your verdict was …" she said slowly. Eject finished the sentence for her.

"Rill is capable of successfully leading this team," he said.

"But he is ruthless, …"

"You need to be ruthless to a certain degree to lead."

Sky sighed.

"I guess I'm really not cut out for this leader business then," she said in a weary tone.

"Don't worry," Eject said. "They wouldn't tolerate a tyrant."

"I sure hope so …" Sky murmured. The anger that she had felt at the T29 was indeed gone, but something was still unclear to her.

"So … Where do you come in? You're leader too now," she pointed out. "Are you sure you're not playing your own games?" she asked the other tank warily. After all, Eject seemed to be pulling his own share of strings.

"That was never my aim. He made me an offer to lead with him," Eject replied with a shrug. He went on firmly. "I merely accepted it. Not because I want power, if that's what you mean — I couldn't care less about it. It's simply the easiest way for me to keep him in check, and I'm glad the opportunity presented itself."

Sky nodded, because she didn't know what to say; but then another important question popped up in her mind.

"How do you know he isn't just using you?"

"He is," Eject replied deadpan. "When he made us the leaders, I was just a token for him, an alibi, to make it seem like he didn't want it all for himself. I won't doubt for a moment that he'll get rid of me as soon as he can. But for the time being, he needs me. I'm well-liked and respected. People follow me, because they've known me for a long time, and they trust me. Until he can win them over, I'll be his friend and ally."

"And when he did win them over? Then what?" Sky asked.

Eject shrugged. His antenna twitched for a moment as if he had noticed something. He turned to leave.

"We will see. I trust him as far as I can throw him, but he is not the devil."

Sky watched the heavy turn around and drive off; it took her a moment to spot Rill, who was now standing between the shadows a little way off. Eject reached him and they disappeared between the buildings together. Sky lowered her optics as she started driving off herself. She had a lot to brood about. She thought that she now understood the real reason why heavy tanks were so pensive all the time. All that plotting and analyzing each other's moves had to take up a lot of brain power. Maybe it was better that she was no longer the target of such calculations.

###

"What do you mean 'they are not friends anymore'?" Sky asked Arty.

The Sturmpanzer shuffled on her tracks uncomfortably. She couldn't believe it either, but the argument had been very unambiguous. Also Rex had confirmed it himself as she had cautiously asked him about it just earlier. He and Fox were on very bad terms now.

"They kinda yelled at each other and haven't talked since …" Arty said.

"But why?" Sky asked on.

"Because of … you, from what I understand," Arty replied, scratching her glacis. Sky gaped at her. Arty went on. "Rex … uh … didn't take the takeover well."

"He didn't mention it …" Sky mumbled thoughtfully.

Arty had seen him talking to Sky earlier, but had gotten the impression that it had been a positive conversation. He too was glad to have her back, but he must have realized that Sky taking back her leadership role wasn't going to happen anytime soon. It was unlikely that he had accepted it yet, but at least he was quiet about it now. Arty thought that it was for the best. It would have been a shame if he had gotten kicked too — he was a strong ally and she liked him.

"I didn't see them argue before that," Sky said, still in a thoughtful tone. "Do you think they became estranged?"

Arty gave her a shrug but didn't say anything. Sky shook her cannon. It looked like she was about to say something else, but in that moment Eject made an announcement over the radios.

«Everyone, gather,» he said.

Sky immediately set herself into motion. Arty rolled after her. They'd continue the conversation later if they'd get the chance. The two tanks reached the middle of the base quickly. The others were arriving one after another as well, even Pepper and the TRV. Rill and Eject were already there and waiting until everyone had finally gathered and was looking at them expectantly. Eventually, Eject spoke.

"We decided what we are going to do next," he said, making everyone listen even closer. "We will _not_ be going further south, or back north. We are going to travel west."

He just ended the sentence there and didn't go on. Arty looked around, and guessed from everyone's expressions that this left a lot of questions unanswered. The TRV spoke up before anyone else could do it.

"I can't follow you there," she said, which earned her frowns from the leaders.

"We were hoping you would accompany us," Eject rumbled.

"The teams in the South need me."

"I see," Eject replied. He turned to his team again. "We will leave presently. Pack our things and get ready for a march."

The tanks scattered to make preparations for their departure. Sky and Arty didn't drive off right away as they noticed Awol approaching them. As he reached them, the three of them started making their way towards the fuel depot.

"What's in the West?" Awol asked, his voice timid.

"I've never been there, either," Arty said with an uneasy shrug. The world might as well have ended there, she wouldn't have known. That they would just be driving off a cliff and fall off said world seemed just as likely to Arty as finding unknown lands there.

"Do you think they have?" Awol went on.

"They?" Arty asked.

Awol gestured into the direction they had come from.

"Eject, or Rill," he said.

"No," Arty replied pensively. "I don't think so."

Awol looked to the ground and remained silent.

###

The sky was painted in all shades of orange and a luscious blue; deep red clouds were reflecting the light of the descending sun. Below, a Pershing was following a tree-lined road that coiled itself between the hills, going on as far as her sights could see before its contours vanished in the glow of the horizon. Sky's watchful gaze traced the hill crests as she did her best to spot anything against the dying sunlight. Her job was to scout the area for the Tanking League so they could travel safely, which should have been a light tank's job. But in the absence of such, she was a reasonable choice. Even if she was nowhere near as nimble or perceptive as a light tank, she could at least rely on her sixth sense to tell her if anyone was nearby. That was something none of her team mates could do.

That sixth sense suddenly went off.

Sky slowed down and threw a hurried look around. From the corner of her optics, she noticed some movement - something small disappeared behind a lone building near the road. Whoever that was, they had probably seen her. She quickly informed her team; Rill told her to go take a look.

" _But what if -_ " she replied nonverbally, but Rill interrupted her.

«Are you in cover?» he asked.

" _No,_ " Sky replied.

«Is cover nearby?»

" _No ..._ "

«If you stay there, you're dead, then.»

As much as Sky didn't like it, he was right. She took a deep breath and rolled towards the building, her cannon loaded.

Her optics were darting back and forth between both sides of the building in case the unknown tank would appear there, but even as she reached it, nothing of the sort happened. She cautiously drove round the building's front, and then its side. As she reached the back, Sky found what she was looking for. A Chaffee - covered in cloth and bags, most of his turret hidden by a hood - was standing just beside the wall, turned towards her.

Sky pointed her cannon at him, but relaxed a little … until she realized that the two of them weren't alone. She froze as a Super Pershing rolled out from behind a bush to her right. Their cannon was trained on Sky's flank, but they didn't say anything.

"Well, fuck!" Sky hissed at her radio.

###

' _Where the hell are they?_ ' the Jagdpanther thought. Perched on his hill, he took another thorough look through his binoculars, but still couldn't make out any movement down the road.

With the setting sun behind him, it probably wouldn't have been necessary to hide his hull this painstakingly under all kinds of vegetation and even build a whole - very convincing, in his opinion - fake hedgerow; but he had to make sure to eliminate every possible factor of his ambush failing, no matter how small. Being seen too early would have been an incredibly disastrous cause of failure.

The problem was that it seemed like his plan, crafted with feverish care, was going to fail for another fatal reason: The tanks he was trying to ambush were simply not showing up. He couldn't explain it. His careful observation had shown that they were using this very road, with no apparent intentions of leaving it soon. If they had decided to take a different route for whatever reason - if he lost track of them now - he most likely wouldn't get another chance.

But he didn't want to think that. Maybe they had just been held up for a bit along the way, taking a break or something. It was also possible that they had simply settled down for the night already and would finally show up in the morning.

With an anxious growl, he decided that he would wait for a bit longer, even though he was very close to losing his nerve and leaving his position to go look for them.

###

"Follow me, if you want to live," the Chaffee said.

Sky slowly nodded. Her gaze was still glued to the Super Pershing, who she was sure would kill her without hesitation should she try anything. But not only that - even though she couldn't see other tanks, she could clearly sense their presence now. She was convinced that more than just two guns were pointed at her right then. There was little doubt that the Chaffee was serious about her life depending on her doing what he said.

The light tank set himself into motion and drove past her. The quiet Super Pershing just made a small gesture with their cannon. Sky dared to turn around, keeping her cannon averted as she started to follow the Chaffee.

" _It was nice knowing you guys,_ " she sent her team a silent message. Despite the lack of transmitted tone, Rill most likely knew that her words were not only inspired by genuine worry for her life, but also a great amount of cynicism. He was perceptive, that much she had found out by now, so she was sure he'd get it. Curiously, it was Eject who replied this time.

«Do you need assistance?» he asked sternly.

" _An ass_ assin _maybe,_ " Sky replied.

The Chaffee in front of her drove further away from the road, seemingly intending to drive a big arc around the hills ahead. The Super Pershing was following them, close enough that Sky felt like their cannon was nearly poking the back of her turret.

«I'm aiming at them right now,» Awol informed her. «But they're really close to you, and it's far away... If I miss -...» He trailed off. Sky trusted her brother to be good at aiming, but even he was limited by his gun and sights. She didn't feel like being killed by her own sibling on accident. Or angering her escorts in case he should just miss completely.

The feeling of other tanks being nearby grew stronger now. The strangers' team must have been near. Sky tried not to imagine the worst case scenarios, and relied on the hope that this was going to end well for her.

" _Hold your fire for now,_ " she told Awol.

Their trip took several minutes, until they reached the foot of one of the hills. Strangely enough, the Super Pershing stopped there, while the Chaffee gestured at Sky to keep following him.

"Quiet now," the light tank said in a low voice.

Sky couldn't have been more confused at this point, but she nodded and drove up the hill with him. Before they could fully crest, the Chaffee motioned at her to stop. He turned his turret forward again, looked over the hillcrest. Sky followed his gaze. To the left and right side of the road, she spotted a handful of tanks who were positioned on the hillsides and facing east … where Sky would have shown up if she had driven on obliviously.

"They'd turn you and your team into Swiss Cheese in the blink of an eye," the Chaffee whispered.

Sky's optics wandered across the hills, where she could spot more and more tanks now. She grew tense on her suspension as she imagined how easily those ambushers would have taken her team apart. They were well hidden, if one didn't know they were there.

"How did you spot them?" she asked the Chaffee, whispering as well.

He backed up slightly, gesturing at Sky to do the same, which she did.

"We were travelling east, so basically we ended up behind them. They didn't notice us," he replied with a smirk.

"And you decided to warn me? Why?"

The Chaffee shrugged.

"We were curious. Normally, the ghosts don't wait for people. They come to get them. So we figured they were waiting for someone … important, I guess."

Sky frowned.

"Why are we important?" she asked.

"That's what I was gonna ask you," the Chaffee replied.

Sky made a thoughtful "Hm", but blinked with surprise as a realization hit her. That wasn't the first Chaffee she had heard using the term "ghost". She looked at him again, scrutinizing the stranger for a moment.

"Wait …" she mumbled. He returned the look with an inquiring expression. "I know you …!" Sky went on. She couldn't remember his name, but she knew where she had seen him the last time. And the Super Pershing also. "You're from Ruinberg."

"Shhh!" the Chaffee hissed, and backed up further. He turned around and drove back down the side of the hill. Sky drove after him, and caught up to his side.

"Am I right?" she asked.

"What if you are?" the Chaffee replied with a question.

Sky frowned with irritation at the other tank's secretiveness.

"My team's lives are at stake! Stop fooling around!" she chided.

"Tell them to stay where they are," the Chaffee said. "You should make camp for now."

They stopped at the foot of the hill, where the Super Pershing was no longer aiming at Sky at least.

"Make camp?" Sky asked. "Why? We should attack them before dark."

The Chaffee shook his cannon.

"It's too late for that. You'll want to attack them from behind, but you'll never make that detour before nightfall."

Sky had imagined something like crashing the ambush with all guns blazing, but that strategy sounded more sustainable indeed. She tilted her cannon.

"So, attacking in the morning it is. Will you help us?" she asked.

"Our leader will have to decide that," the Chaffee replied.

"Your leader …" Sky murmured. She clearly remembered the scavenger team's leader being a dummy tank the last time they had met. "Well, yeah, ask him," she said, holding back a sigh.

The Chaffee nodded.

"Farewell for now," he said and turned to leave, gesturing at the Super Pershing to follow him. The two tanks drove off.

Sky remained where she was for a moment, then turned around and shook her cannon as she started making her way back to her team.

"Guys," she said on her team's radio channel.

«What's going on? What did they want?» Rill asked.

"Yeah — I'm alive and well, thanks for asking," Sky replied. No one reacted to that statement, so she went on and passed on the new information.


	15. Important Note

NOTE!

I've moved on from FF, and decided to upload my stuff mainly to AO3 from now on. So, if you want to keep reading my stories, please head over to the ArchiveOfOurOwn website. (I linked it in my profile, I hope the link works.)

You can also follow my writing tumblr if you want, its url is the-hummelverse and I posts updates and art for my stories there.

Thanks for reading, I hope to see you on AO3 or tumblr soon!


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